I’d be willing to guess that the first thing most people notice when they see this photo is the cutie smiling baby. She’s got the fullness of joy in her eyes, and she honestly couldn’t be happier to be in that very spot at that very moment. So, I totally get it if someone were to walk away from this photo only remembering how happy that little girl looked.
For me, when I look at this photograph, I see a dad holding his youngest daughter. I see the fullness of joy on HIS face as he looks at his baby girl squealing with delight. I see a father who loves his kids with everything in him. I see the man I married.
For those of you who don’t know, Seth and I don’t have a super conventional story for how we met. (This is the part where I roll my eyes out of a bit of embarrassment and then proceed to talk really really fast and say, “We met online and talked over the phone for many months before prayerfully deciding to meet each other in person and now we have three kids and have lived happily ever after the end.”)
Before that fateful day when we first met, we had SO many phone conversations and email correspondences. Every time I saw a new email pop up, my stomach would jump. I would smile at my computer screen like a total dork, quick to absorb all the recent happenings in his world. There was just something different about him. Even though I had never met him, I felt drawn to him. When we talked on the phone he asked me questions like, ”What has God been teaching you lately?” and my heart would swell. As our friendship continued to grow, it was a little surreal, a little scary, and I guess pretty darn romantic to realize that I was falling in love with someone I had never actually met.
As I was driving to the airport to pick him up, I remember having a conversation with God in the car. The conversation actually consisted more of me talking and God simply nodding, “Yes.” I remember saying something along the lines of,
“Ok..Lord..I’m going to marry this man aren’t I?” God’s answer, “Yes.” “So this is why I’ve felt so drawn to him? He’s ‘the one’ isn’t he?” God, “Yes.” “So… the future husband I have been praying and asking you for since I was a little kid is going to be this man I meet today??”
Every question that I worded differently but had the same overall intention, was answered with a resounding “Yes.” I heard God’s answer in my heart, and I knew.
He was the one.
I had never experienced the sweetness of his hand in mine, never felt my face flush as he looked into my eyes. But I already knew I loved him. And God had already told me he would be the man I said, “I do” to.
When he was off the plane and on his way to the baggage claim he called me to say he would be there to meet me in a few minutes. The next 10 minutes passed by in a blur. I was totally doing that thing where you stare straight ahead but your eyes aren’t really focusing on anything. I may have (or most definitely had) been letting some of my fears have a voice. Was I completely and totally nuts? What was I doing driving to the airport to meet a total stranger?? I tried to slow my breathing and brace for what might become the most influential moment of my life. This could be the day I meet the man of my dreams! The man I walk through the rest of my life with! But..what if he’s not the man he presented himself to be? What if he lied to me, about everything? Or, what if he turns out be the most annoying person on the planet? As I allowed my fears to be entertained by disastrous scenarios playing over and over in my mind, I’m sure God was standing there right next me trying to get me to take a deep breath and trust all the things He had told me in the car.
Seth was the one. Seth would ask me to marry him and I would cry as I said “Yes’.
The first ten seconds of our initial encounter have become infamous in our relationship. As Seth began the short decent down the escalator, he saw me standing on the other side of the glass and waved to me with a big grin on his face.
And I totally didn’t even see him.
He walked right in front of me, still waving but starting to feel a little nervous that I was going to be the one who turned out to be a total weirdo. I was so lost in my day-mares of complete disaster that I didn’t even see him walk by. I had originally been hoping that those first few seconds would be magical. I would see him floating down on the escalator, my heart would flutter, we would shyly smile at each other, lock eyes, and that would be it. We would be lost in our love for each other.
Nope.
The very first conversation we had in person began with him suddenly standing behind me exclaiming (in a burst of laughter), “You didn’t recognize me???”
I jumped out of my skin, turned around… and threw myself into his arms. We erupted in laughter and it’s been something we have continued to giggle about ever since. Within the first 24 hours of his visit we spilled our hearts to each other admitting that we had both been having the same thoughts about the potential of our future together.
We were engaged two months later and became man and wife exactly a year and a half from the day we officially met.
That fateful day at the airport was in early December (December 2nd to be exact). So, every year when Thanksgiving festivities begin to wrap up and all the Christmas cheer starts to explode from everyone’s souls, my heart remembers the day I drove to the airport. My mind reflects on how everything changed the day I met Seth. On that day, the entire trajectory of my life shifted course, because it now included him next to me.
I look at this picture and I see the man I met all those years ago.
I see my husband. My sweetheart. The father of my children.
I see God answering my question to Him in the car. Will this man be the one I prayed for? The one I have dreamed about creating a life with? The one who will continually, and without fail, ALWAYS point me back to You? God’s answer to that question has been fulfilled every day I have been with Seth.
It has been, Yes.
Blessings,
Shanna MacKenzie
