SO MUCH LOVE

Like a water balloon filled to the point of bursting.

And another splash of water is added.

Then another.

The weight of the water, the tension of the elastic skin - you hold your breath.

So much fullness that it can barely be contained.

That's how my heart felt this past weekend.

A busy day Friday, packing and driving and setting up for the rehearsal dinner. The wedding rehearsal - so many dear friends and family together under one roof. So many smiles and hugs, so much laughter and delight.

The ladies at Salem ARP Church - many of whom I had never met before - gathered in the church kitchen, where they baked and decorated and served and cleaned. They loved me like one of their own. Loved my whole family. Loved my new family, too.

I woke in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday - that's what you do when you're 50 years old and you have achy bones and joints, wake up at 3:00 a.m. - and I lay considering the evening past and the special day ahead. And I felt like I was basking in the warmth of a ginormous, holy, heavenly smile. "Do you know how much I love you?!"

I smiled back in the darkness. "So very much," I thought, "that you have completely overwhelmed me. My heart is bursting."

"Oh, I love you that much, and even more! Wait and see...today...what I have in store!"

I think He cracked my ribs. He so over-filled my swollen heart that it burst. And a great torrent of joy and gratitude and delight has been bubbling out ever since, so that I feel adrift in a flood of God's great goodness.

Congratulations, Nate and Abby!