The View from the Top Side

Today I’m writing for Five Minute Friday, where we write flat out for five minutes, unedited, on a one-word prompt. Join the fun with your own post or just read what others have done with their 300 seconds. Check it out at http://lisajobaker.com/category/five-minute-friday/ Today’s word is View.

Most of the time, life looks pretty chaotic, like the underside of a tapestry.  On any given day, I look at my life and see a big tangle of treads going helter skelter all over the place with crazy knots and loops and swirls that don’t look like much and don’t make much sense.

Last Saturday, for just a brief, short time, I saw a different view.

My younger son, my baby, got married.

I saw family I don’t often get to see, who have been part of my life for almost as long as I can remember.

I met new family — the bride’s family — and wondered what crazy quirkiness they were going to add to the mix, just as they were probably wondering the same about us.

I saw the friends of my heart, friends who have been with us through thick and thin, who have helped us raise our kids from the time they were babies, who shared our laughter and our tears over the years.

I saw newer friends, who have been with us in the struggles of the later years, the years when the boys were “adults” and making their own decisions, good and bad, and there wasn’t much we could do but watch, offer our best (often ignored) counsel, and pray.

I saw the kids my son went to school with, boys and girls — now men and women — who were part of his life during those crucial years when he was figuring out who he was as an individual, a person in his own right.  I remembered all the times these kids were clowning around in the back of my minivan (yes, I was a proud minivan mom) on the way to or from a volleyball game or a basketball game.  I remembered all the times these kids were sitting around the quad with guitars, singing spontaneous worship songs. I remembered all the times I thought they were somewhere singing worship songs and found out later that they … well … weren’t.

I saw my older son’s wife as she introduced their baby daughter to the joys of nature — such a good mom, an excellent mom — and a wonderful addition to our family.

I saw my older son himself, standing proudly next to his baby brother, both of them so handsome in their tuxedos, as they watched the beautiful bride walk down the aisle.

                        I saw my new daughter-in-law, glorious, radiant, and      joyously in love with my son.

I saw my husband stand to give a toast to this boy with whom his relationship had been, during all those growing up years, like oil and water.  But God had big plans for the two of them; they went into business together, and I figured they’d either learn to get along or kill each other.  

And here they were, both still alive, and my husband raised his glass and struggled through the toast, his voice thick with love and emotion, his eyes — and by the end, everyone else’s eyes, too — wet with tears.

I saw my baby boy dancing with the woman of his dreams in his arms.

That brief little peek reminded me that even when I think my whole world is out of control, even when life is beating me up and I think there is no rhyme or reason to it, I am only seeing the underside of the tapestry of my life.  The view from top side — the one God sees — that’s the beautiful picture.

And I got a glimpse of it on Saturday.