Saturday's Old Photo

With Valentine's Day coming, I'm posting this picture of my husband and me, taken about four months after we started dating. I'm sure by this time I knew that we'd get married, but I wouldn't have admitted it to you. I was only 18, after all, and just starting my first year of Bible school.

He was 23 and ready to settle down. Besides, he'd asked God to send him someone, and the next day I'd started work at the truck stop where he was working. He thought I was cute, then he found out I was a pastor's daughter, and that was all the confirmation he needed. He was wise not to tell me these things until much later because I'd have sent him packing.

As it turns out, I married him because he was a worthy Scrabble opponent. When you meet your match at Scrabble, it would be foolish to let him go.

We played blood Scrabble, no mercy. His talent was using all seven of his letters in one turn on a triple word score. He once did that 3 times in a row and robbed me of a game that was rightfully mine. My strongest suit was making up words, then convincing him they were real words by making up bogus yet plausible sounding definitions.

That last winter we played 22 games and each won 11. That is the winter I learned that sometimes you must let your perfect Scrabble match go.