I wrote this for a tractor board but it was pretty well recieved there so I thought I would repost it here.
"In The Fullness Of Time"
My mother used to say that to me when I'd ask too often when were we going to the fair or when I could have a box of .22 shells.
I learned if she said that she was tired of being bugged about it and it was best to leave it alone.
When I was older and had read Galatians a few times I began to understand it meant when the time was right. And not before.
Many times I asked God for a wife.
I knew other good women but never the right one.
I figured maybe the time would never be right so at last I quit asking.
I met this woman 25 years ago. She was the manager at an apartment company where I did maintenance for a couple of years.
We got along great. But she was married.
We kept in touch a little over the years. I did some remodeling for her and her husband and we had some peripheral friends.
I hadn't heard from her much in the last few years till last winter she called and asked if I could fix her slow draining bathtub.
That's when I learned that her husband had died.
I charged her breakfast for the job.
And then we started dating.
Not long after, I asked her if or when she could marry again maybe she would consider someone like me.
She just smiled. But the mist in her eyes told me what I wanted to hear.
10 whirlwind months of meeting her people and she mine.
Holding hands and picnics and weekends.
Laughter.
Selling my best tractor to buy her a ring.
The joy of her consoling proximity.
She's 57 and I'm 60. Yet the goofy, tongue tied, hesitant ways a pretty girl can make a guy act are still there as if you were 20.
Yesterday we had a simple ceremony in front of a judge, three of her friends and three of mine.
And we made our vows.
My first time.
I waited a long time for this.
Wondered if it had all passed me by.
I could go on. But it's a tractor board after all.
I've finally learned what my mother meant by 'in the fullness of time'.
And something too about a fullness of heart.
Jerry & Ruth
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