my non-wedding day story

July 22, 2006. I could not get anyone to work for me this night...the night that I was to be married. Not as if I needed to keep this day holy or something. I just didn't think I would have to work as a waitress. But, God allowed me to be a servant that night....not just for the restaurant boss, but for him. He had to touch some lives and I was to do it. The night was busy...and I didn't have much time to think about how that was the day I was to be married.....and be obsessive about it. But a certain event un folded before my eyes that illustrated moment after moment the tender and careful hand of God. I had a table at 26, just around the corner and I was making some of the Nederlander Grille's famous homemade bread pudding for them....treating them to a hearty slurpping serving of soft serve ice cream and warm carmel and cinnamon.....wowsers! I kicked the two way door open to proudly exit the kitchen. A sly grin on my face would precede the official 'presentation' of the dessert from heaven. I turn just around the corner and lo and behold.....hark Table 26 was gone! What! Three thoughts came to my mind as my surprised and somewhat starked face fell in a mouth dropped freeze. one---the couple thought they would desert the table...and 'dessert' outside. I picked up hoof and gave a glance out the patio door....nope, just Pastor Ouwinga and his smiling family (Hello, Miss Vivacious!) Thought number two----the rapture! and I was left with a bread pudding covered with soon to be melted ice cream. I think it was the glance at the pastor type that shifted my thoughts significantly. Third thought---they were thieves. If it wasn't the rapture, they must have stolen the meal and walked out. And they were old. And they had free coffee. I was robbed by some little old people and I didn't even see it coming! Sadly I walked to the waitress station...thoroughly confused. Ruby, my beautiful co-waitress piped in.
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"Oh you looking for Table 26? Yeah....well they decided to go."
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WHAT!!!
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"...go to table 27. They knew 'em."
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Wow! Erika, what a freak out. I sighed with relief and obtained once again the sly 'presentation' composure and rounded the corner toTable 27. So loudly there they were....not outside, not raptured, and not Bonnie and Clyde. I present the dessert, quickly and with grace. "I call this one, 'Two white swans'" I love it when the ice cream tapers at the top and entwines as an abstract swan. Two tapered white swans makes a very romantic moment. Just remember that.

"Oh Erika! It's nice to see you," states the originaltable 27 gentleman.

"Oh, hi....yes, so you are the culprits who stole mytable 26...made me think they were raptured thieves."

We all laughed at the absurd comment. I knew this 27 couple they are from Alton she was a sweet wide-hearted woman who played in the Dordt Symphony Orchestra with me....sat last chair next to me. He was a bouncy and boisterous man with a flare that I always love to serve at the grille. Makes a waitress feel like a princess.

"Do you know who this girl is?" he asks table 26ers.

"This is the 2001 Tulip Queen!" Table 26 just gasped and there was bustles of noise--"well, I never,wow...so wonderful, I could have guessed!"

Shyly...and a bit embarrassed I tilted my head down, but kept a smile. Its nice to be noticed and like I said, I always feel like royalty around him (maybe heis like God in that way)

"What was that 5 years ago? Isn't it time to moveon?" I answered very quickly, my sarcasm was thick. By this time he knew my humor...especially to him. He knew I was flattered and could handle it. A boisterous laugh was all that followed. Like clockwork.

And this is where things get crazy. As if I was walking right into a web of blessing...and so naive I walked in. Mr. Table 26 leaned over the table a bit, snatched a finger full of the 27's bread pudding. He looked at me, smiled and then said,

"Wow, wouldn't she be a great daughter-in-law? Or wife even."

Are you kidding me....he did not just say that? Not today! What are the odds? It couldn't be true, not on this very immediate day, at the time in which I could--if I was to be--actually be someones new daughter-in-law and someones WIFE! God was speaking and I knew it. I didn't leave for in the next moments would be the thickest most delightful moments of my life. The type of exact times that can only happen on the 'day you were supposed to get married'--God knowing it be the only one of this type.

My face was motionless as both sets of tables made jolting gestures and nodded in agreement. As if table 26 had actually known me longer than bread pudding arrival. Mrs. Said Bonnie from vacant table 26 spoke the words I could only assume would come (is this actually my reality God?)

"So," leaning toward me as if I was no longer awaitress, but a girlfriend at the coffee shop about todish the gossip. "how close are you to being a wife?"

If you only knew, I thought. If you only knew! If YOU only knew!

"If you only knew," stumbled my tongue. The words finally made it to my mouth after three failed attempts passed my comfortable social bubble. My wall of vulnerability was too high for such feeble words to scale. And then it all came. Like a waterfall of truth. And it set me free.

"I was supposed to getmarried today, actually."

the silence was unexpected.
and it hurt my ears.

"yeah, it was today, and you know what...that's okay. The Lord has shown me so much of his strength that I can only believe is called grace for my ex-fiance and for myself. He has shown me himself and the hope that lingers is never leaving me...or forsaking me."

"Oh Erika, your testimony is so real, so alive and itis bringing me to tears,"

my boisterous friend was now a weeping willow leaning against his hand on the table. In only a moments time he was completely overrun by the power of God.

"...more coffee?"