My One True L❤ve and Wifeling
Outside of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Whom entwined us…
Attending a church in a small town in southern Oregon had opened my eyes, again, to the fact that, “Yes Virginia, life truly does go on for eternity. It’s up to you where you’d like to spend it.” Pastor George likes to say, “Just as surely as there is a heaven to be gained, there is a hell to be shunned.” Great pastor, that one…and, yes, we all fall down from time to time. Just get back up!
I’d attended this lil church for about a year; showing up early every Thursday, Sunday mornings and evenings for hugs and chats with fellow parishioners. One time was different. Vastly.
You see, three people had come along and joined our church without even asking me about it, lol! One man and two women… The guy looked like a fellow motorcycle rider, with his Harley shirt. One woman was pretty… the other had a smile that could melt rock, I’m certain; or at the very least chocolate. It was a look that stared deep inside; way down, places that nobody had ever seen nor been. She had a beauty that went beyond “bathing suit” or “model” looks… She was called Sherry and made my butterflies nervous in my tummy. Move along now, Mike!
As time goes on, I’m walking thru my church embracing people and I see this lovely lady sitting alone one day and I greet her and move on.
Or so I thought. You see, God had another plan and stopped me in my tracks and nudged me to go pray with her. By myself. He, me and she…
I stopped and remember going, “GOD, is this you??” I felt a calmness quite unlike any other emotion I’d had before. I returned to the aisle she was sitting on and asked her if I could pray with her. She smiled that smile and said, “Please do.” I sat down beside her and kinda calmly took Sherry’s right hand in my two hands and began praying for her life situations. Unknown to me until a couple of weeks later, God showed up and took over that prayer. We prayed for her family and, no; I didn’t know, but we prayed for her Pop. He was dying, you see, of cancer. I removed myself after the prayer and went and sat where I always sat, in the front row.
Sunday morning, week after week, I rode my Harley-Davidson Road King to that little church and I ran into that other fella we spoke of earlier, with his wife on the back of his Harley Softail Custom. They were friends with Sherry, as I had thought. His wife almost always sat with her when they were there.
One time after morning church I’d got my nerve up and I was gonna ask Sherry if she wanted to ride on my bike to evening church. I was finally ready and it was a rare gorgeous day on November the 4th, 2007. I raced outside, uh huh, sure and… she was long gone!
I asked her friends if they could call and ask her for me and maybe get me some directions to her house, if she said yes? Jerry looked at me with this sly grin and said that he could call me either way. After thanking him profusely we all rode off.
True to his word a while later Jerry called me and gave directions to her house. Har! That sly grin he’d sported earlier when I asked if he could get ahold of her? Well, he and his missus were living with her at her home! Found that out about two shakes after I arrived.
The four of us went to evening church. On bikes. Wowza and boom diggity! Sermon must have been really great. I think.
After church we all rolled down the freeway to Shari’s Restaurant, and no I’m not making this up. After eating and chatting for an hour or so we fired up those bikes and rode over to Sherry’s home.
Over the next few weeks Sherry and I spent most every waking hour; when she wasn’t working, talking of many, many things. How we both loved God, the ocean, the night sky, rock n roll, rivers, blue skies, snow from a distance, the same kind of foods, oh yes- & ice cream for dessert. Turns out that we’d disliked, liked or loved the same things since we were teens! Big surprise to me was that Sherry was already signed up to be trained formally, by the state of Oregon on how to ride motorcycles; oh yeah, and neither one of us wanted to never, ever marry again. Seems we had both been torched to the ground and needed nobody to help us rebuild, thank you very much…
Well Folks, God and time don’t really have to play by all of our rules~ whatever they may be. I met her family for Thanksgiving and liked them all, and they me. Sherry getting past my lil guard daughter was sumpin’ else, but it all worked out for the best, finally. Now my daughter and Sherry have a bond that no one could break, I believe. Let’s not forget that:
A. I asked her father if I could marry her; to which he dryly replied, “I guess you’d have to ask her that, not me.” haha ha
B. I had to make it past her daughter and son. No problemo.
Sherry and I were married in that lil church forty days after we first had that church & dinner date. Yes, we still go to Shari’s most times on Nov. 4th~ or Dec. 14th!! Yup, we still happily attend the same church.
Sherry and I rode all over the place together and one weekend she passed that class for her motorcycle endorsement. My, my, was she excited?! Not quite as excited as she was a couple months later on her birthday when she was walked into the back yard and found her own bike waiting on her. Yup. She cried. Me too; she was so gorgeous! (The Wifeling, not the bike;-)
Did we have spats of trouble? Oh yeah!! They’re not called “baggage” or “triggers” fer nuthin’, ya know. The stuff we haul along in our lives, under moss-slimed rocks is just waiting, it seems, for somebody you really, really, really, love to trip over; and the battle begins in earnest. They’re all silly, inconsequential things that make you wonder what all the fuss was about too, when it’s over. We’ve not once fought over the typical list: jealousy, money, abuse, adultery, drunkenness, drug addled stupidity, nada, none of that.
When we do “agree to disagree” it can still take a little time to get there. We’ve both found that prayer works for many, many things; yes, including the remembrance that we live by grace and faith. Grace and faith??Yuppers. If you’re a Christian, at all, then you need to remember those two lil words that are so gigantic, we can’t really measure them in human standards. Give each other some grace and have faith that it will, indeed, all work out.
Was it my lil Cinnamon Sherry who first called me her “Husbling?” Nope, she credits me with calling her “Wifeling.” But!! She calls me her Husbling cuz, says she, I sparkle and shine above most guys called “husband.” Sheesh. Kinda embarrassed here now Folks, cuz I call some peeps Earthling (Oh, oh, Hi, Normal Earthling!) and I thought it was cute n awesome & original… Oh well!
She’s also known by My Sweetness, Cinnamon Sherry, and Gorgeous Girl! (Cuz she is!!) Is she my all-time favorite and awesome Valentine’s Gurl?? You just know it by now, right? Indubitably and thank you Lord Jesus!!
I was going to pen, er, tap, a tale of love involving my wife and I. Additionally it was going to be done before and for Valentine’s Day. Then I noticed a prompting from a writer name of Rachel Darnall… “It’s on,” thought I. https://medium.com/i-digress Additionally a great Thank You to my friend TeriJo, whose kind assisatnce always shores me up against the tide!!❤ Calling Out Gail Boenning, D Mitchell, Kim Richardson, Teresa L Curry, SF Ali, Jack Herlocker. I bring a couple of you great words of encouragement for your footsteps are ordered and He knows the desires of your heart. Hang On…
