I sat down, the hopelessness of my questions overtaking me, and cried ugly. As I wept, I felt the peaceful presence of One Who knew more than I, and I felt comfort in that peace. He spoke and I listened. He told of His love and of the everlasting nature of His love. His words held me as a mother holds her own, and I pleaded with Him not to stop. He showed me the finality of man’s love, but also the infinity of His own. He spoke a bit longer and then rose to leave. As He did, I felt the comfort leaving, too, and as if He knew, He turned and caught my eyes in His for what seemed an eternity. Something about that gaze made me uncomfortable and peaceful all at once, and yet it was unexplainable. Finally, He opened His mouth, His eyes never leaving mine, and the words He spoke were alive, cutting through my confusion, my hopelessness, my despair.
“I love you.â€
He was gone, and yet, He wasn’t. His words hung in the air and surrounded me like the warmth of an early morning cup of joe. I rose to leave, sad now, sorry that I couldn’t stay in this place forever and feel the comfort of His words. And yet, the words came with me. They were everywhere I went, everywhere I looked. They were in the brush of the wind, the heat of the sun, the chill of the night. Everything echoed what He had said.
“I love you.â€
I raised my hands to the heavens and smiled. Thank you! Thank you for those 3 simple, marvelous words! “I love you,†He had said. Present tense, never past. Once was, now is, it will always last. Love. The word is itself one of beginnings. It is a word that speaks of eternity.
You’re starting to scare me Paul…
Exactly what part of this story scares you?
The part where you capitalized “Joe.” Other than that I am enjoying your saga.
That’s really funny. I think my story fell victim to the Auto Capitalization tool in Word. It works on all kinds of things, like when I typed Charlotte as the capital of NC, it changed it to Raleigh.
I’ll fix the Joe to joe now.