Valentine’s Bookends
Two memories I am savoring sweetly tonight, one old and one new.
The old:
Nine years ago today, my boyfriend took me to the mall for a little shopping excursion—a big deal given that I was a recreational shopper and he was a tactical shopper. We were walking around the second floor at Carolina Place mall and I was talking, marathon style, who knows about what, when I suddenly noticed he was no longer right next to me. I turned around to see him staring in a storefront window, mouth open. I would not have been surprised at all if it had been Sharper Image or Brookstone or something else gadgety, but he was, in fact, staring in the window of the Things Remembered store. Right, the one with all the embroidered stuff and personalized bears and whatnot. So I backtracked to him, continuing my chatter. He patiently waited for me to come up for air, at which point he said, “Check it out!”
In the window was a throw blanket, white with lots of little hearts all over it, and in the big heart in the middle, embroidery reading “Jessica and Michael.” I, of course, thought he planted it there and told him how cute that was of him. He insisted (rather sincerely) that he did not. After a full discussion establishing that, in fact, it was not a planted gift, he bought me the blanket, which I maintain as my absolute favorite to snuggle under on cold days.
And the new:
Tonight, as I was putting Will to bed, we finished our story time, our prayers, at least five songs of varying silliness, and were getting ready for the last goodnight kisses, my sweet boy said to me, “Mama, I love something-or-other-mumbled-under-the-blanket.”
“Who do you love, baby?” I asked him, expecting to hear my name, or Daddy, or Gaw and Paw, or Arwen, or Apple Jacks, or the letter k, any number of other things, without an inkling of how precious this particular bedtime was about to be.
He looked at me and said, “I love Jesus, Mama. And you love God. You love God and I love Jesus.” Completely unprompted.
Every day, I am so blessed to reflect on moments like these and experience new ones. I think of one of my favorite scriptures, James 1:17, and am deeply thankful for these beautiful Valentine’s Day gifts.
