Sixteen years ago today I married my best friend. No mid-April chill was present. But the rain was. And no amount of pouting would clear those skies, so I just embraced it. My dad walked me to the covered deck on the Amite River carrying a large LSU umbrella.

Tomorrow marks one year of Joe’s car wreck. It was the day after our anniversary and it was quite gloomy. The weather was nasty and the air was dismal in the wake of the Boston Bombers. We had plans for that night. They did not include recovery from a collision.

On this Good Friday morning the skies are much darker, much gloomier than that April 18th Saturday in 1998. So fitting. One Friday a couple thousand years ago the earth quaked, the skies drew dark, as Christ hung on that tree. His darkest hour when the Father looked away and the whole of sin was placed on Him transcends any of our darkest moments. In darkness He hung, separated from the Father though but for a moment, so dark, so cruel. Such love. All that we would never have to be separated from the Father. All for us, that our darkest hours would break forth in victory through Him if we’d let them.

Today, I woke in the wee morning hours, racked with pain. Several hours passed. The list of things to be done today for the Easter weekend, the plans for celebrating sixteen years of marriage tonight, played over and over. This isn’t how I anticipated this day would start.

I am reminded once again that no man knows what a day brings forth {Proverbs 27:1}.

So I choose to see Him, Beautiful Sustainer, even in the mundane, in the dark, in the dismal, in the pain. I’ll keep seeking.

I’ll put on my rain boots and celebrate in the rain if necessary. Because I’m so blessed! I will celebrate. I’ll show a daughter and a grandson that we can find joy and see glory beneath dark clouds. I will celebrate tonight with The Man who rocks my world.

And I’ll remember that two thousand years ago the light of the world hung in darkness for me. But most of all, before that final moment that He laid down His life and gave His last breath, He cried out three words that would proclaim and qualify the entirety of our redemption:

It is finished! {John 19:30}

It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming!!!

Happiest Anniversary EVER, Joe! You still rock my world! I love you!!!

Happy, glorious Day of Redemption everyone {to my dozen of readers }!!!