This is the One
To my daughter and my almost son-in-law, who have found each other.
THIS IS THE ONEThis is the one who Will fold my daughter’s life into his own Will stand at the front of the church, waiting expectantly As she appears in the doorway Will take her hand in his, sliding a circle of white-gold onto her finger And making a promise he will never break
This is the one who
Will find a house halfway between his and hers
Will arm wrestle her bedroom furniture down our winding stairs
And into a borrowed pickup truck
Will let her hang brightly colored curtains at all of the windows and
Tissue paper stained glass made by her pre-school class
This is the one. The one who
Will show up for holiday dinners and family birthdays
Will answer the phone when I call, holding it at arm’s length and shouting,
“It’s your mother!”
Will accept that time with her does not belong to him alone.
He is the one who will
Hold her hand as she labors in childbirth, buckle my grandchild into a car seat, and make sure to teach truth and light
This is the one who
Will laugh when she laughs,
Hold her when she cries, wiping each tear from her freckled face
And tell her that of course she does not look fat in those jeans because she is perfect.
And he will mean it.
This is the one who will, in the inevitability of life’s harsh realities,
Stand beside her at a grave side
Pulling her to him as she says good-bye
Not caring that she stains the lapel of his good black suit—his only black suit—with
Her streaked eye shadow.
Because this is the one who
Despite heart-breaks and broken dreams and lost chances and love left behind in a deep, long, valley of hurt,
God has brought to her.
In the vastness of a universe often lacking in the essential ingredient of compassion, it is not really one person, one man, one woman
But God
Who is
The One.