I'm not talking the kind of love that marriages are made of, or even the kind that kept your heart tightly bound to a high school sweetheart. What I speak of is that first stirring... the first recognition in your heart of hearts that something special happens between men and women. It might just be recognizing that your parents are in love, and identifying what that might actually mean. Or perhaps, it's a little more.
Lucy has been thinking much about love lately. After a sweet conversation about her Dad, and my expression that she ought to marry someone just like him, Lucy informed me that she already knows who she wants to marry. And then she told me his name.
"I just can't stop thinking about it," she said.
I know the boy. His Mom is one of my dear friends and I think very highly of the entire family. I smiled at the sweet openness of her affection and told her that this boy would be a wonderful man someday. He's several years older than Lucy, but he has always been kind to her, which I'm sure appears to Lucy as the exact opposite of the often rough and tumble relationship she has with her own brothers. It seems only natural his gallantry would set him apart from others.
A few days later, while walking in the park, Lucy asked, "Mommy, what do you do if you fall in love with someone and they don't love you back?"
I explained that your heart hurts for a little while, and then you move on, and love someone else because love has to go two ways. She was quiet then, I'm sure pondering the possibility of this one boy ever returning her affection.
Lucy is much too young to fall in love; to have any real appreciation for the powerful linking of two hearts. But I think she sees that it exists, and recognizes that someday, it will happen for her. She realizes now that when she grows up, she won't marry her Daddy, or live with her twin brother for ever and ever. There is someone out there, someone that she will fall in love with.
And so it is now that preparation begins... that she start learning how amazingly special she is, how divine her potential. It is now that I teach her that she must not ever compromise, that only the most worthy men will be deserving of her heart - faithful, honorable men, men like her Dad, men that measure up.
I hope, whoever and wherever he is, he's getting ready too. Because the man that marries this girl? He's getting something special.
