IT was just over a year ago I walked my
younger one down the aisle to hand her
over to the new man in her life and around seven years before that I had done the same for my eldest, and the feelings I underwent were exactly the same:
Months of conflicting thoughts: My arms starting to feel empty! Both had nestled there through most of their childhood, telling me about gigantic problems little girls went through in school or around their homes and after I’d heard them out, talked to them, comforted them, and allowed them to lay their heads awhile in these same arms they went back to play while I stood at the window watching, and now trying to solve their worries which had become mine. And now I had to walk them into a new life: One, where I wouldn’t be around to hold them as they started their first baby steps into marriage. They’d have to walk forward, hopefully guided by all their mother and I had taught them, and finding new confidence as they shaped anew their own family together. And so, I went through a variety of emotions.
But a few days before their weddings, a new and wondrous thought flashed through my mind; that the One above who had always been there for me, would also be there for them. What was the need for worry? “Lord,” I prayed, “Lord!” I whispered, “You’re telling me something?” The calm that followed was dramatic. It was like a gentle wave flowing over me, removing with its ebb all fears and conflicting emotions.
Just like both had lain in my own arms I felt strong Divine arms would hold them both. At both their weddings I felt a voice above whispering: “Bob, I’ll care for her, like you’ve cared for her and more. Like you’ve been a father to her Bob, I will continue being one for her! You will walk her down the aisle Bob, but even as you step aside, I won’t. I will walk on with her and him. I will be there besides them every step of their lives!”
“How silly of me to worry Lord!” And then at both the weddings, I felt the lifting of all my fears and a sense a peace, a stillness which a God above had enveloped me with, and which I know would be there for my children too, as they too, going through their own varying thoughts and emotions, would get to know, that even as their earthly father stopped at the end of the aisle, their Heavenly Father would walk on with them, into their new lives! And He Has, and how..!
