What If?

 

For now we see through a glass, darkly;

but then face to face:

now I know in part;

but then shall I know even as also I am known.

—      1 Corinthians 13:12

 

 

A sorority sister and friend of our daughter Eden got one of the most elaborate and spectacular marriage proposals imaginable the other day. It all started off with the delivery of too many roses to count. Then, curiously, all day, friends asked her questions that all started with the same two words:

 

"What if. . . .?"

 

What if they ran out of doughnuts at breakfast?

 

What if class was called off?

 

What if. . . .?

 

What if. . . .?

 

What if. . . .?

 

It happened too many times to have been a coincidence. She's a very smart young woman, a former University of Nebraska cheerleader and broadcasting major who has interned with a national network. But she was mystified.

 

Finally, she was lured on a pretext to Ground Zero of cool here in Nebraska - Memorial Stadium - where a puzzling video along the theme of the simple question "What if?" finally clued her in to what was going on.

 

It was a highly romantic and unusual marriage proposal under the dazzling lights on the 50-yard-line:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDmQg8nlyzQ

 

I'm a crusty old sailor by now, cynical and world-weary. But I've watched this a few times and still get tears in my eyes, bigtime, when she runs out to join her boyfriend, a former Cornhusker football player, and that big guy's knee hits the turf.

 

It's that magical moment that all of us romantics yearn for and swoon over.

 

You can't hear it, but you can imagine what he's asking her:

 

What if . . . we could spend the rest of our lives together as husband and wife?

 

It's that most delicious of moments, when you're PRETTY sure she'll say "yes," but you're not ENTIRELY sure. . . .

 

He needn't have worried. She loved the ring, and started making wedding plans before the tears were dry. He admitted that he had sent the roses and put all her friends up to the "what if?" questions. They had conspired to make the phony video, which featured current Husker stars such as quarterback Zac Lee, running back Roy Helu, and revered former coach and now N.U. Athletic Director Tom Osborne.

 

Figures a football player would turn his marriage proposal into a team effort.

 

            We all wish them the very best. But let's take a minute to ponder something that's very interesting about love and romance, brought out by the simple question that was this caper's centerpiece:

 

            What if . . . we COULD see the future, and didn't have to guess who our mate might be or how our lives might turn out?

 

            What if . . . the thrills of flirting, the rush of romance, and the ecstatic peak you hit when you KNOW this is "the one" . . . what if none of that existed, because there was no uncertainty in our lives? What if we lived in the world where you always knew what you were going to get?

 

What if you knew BEFOREHAND that the person you just met was going to wind up as your spouse? What if all the bad stuff that inevitably happens in any marriage - the ways he'll slip, the ways she'll disappoint - were clear to you before you even had your first date?

 

What if you knew in advance exactly how the pain in that marriage would happen? Would you still go through with it? Probably not. Would anybody? Can't see how.

 

It's just another shining example of God's perfect planning in our lives - His perfect design for everything He made, especially love.

 

Love has to have uncertainty, and questions, and mysteries, and exquisite moments of doubt and delay, to keep us engaged. I don't mean engaged as in that proposal the other night. I mean engaged, in the sense of being overwhelmingly attracted, attached, absorbed and secure in the love of that other person.

 

True engagement is more complicated than a million football plays, more compelling than the persuasion of even a million roses. And ironically, it's built on what you DON'T know for sure.

 

We'll understand that, one day, when we all become the Bride of Christ. The things that confused and perplexed us down here on Earth will all make perfect sense, and the video of our lives will be crystal-clear and complete.

 

I often wonder why God doesn't just "download" everything we need to know into our little pea brains so that we'll all believe in Him and quit all this strife and sinfulness. One little PowerPoint from the One who invented power . . . it would do it!

 

Why does He wrap Himself in mystery all the time, then? Why does He make us work so hard to learn Who He is and what we're here for? What if . . . God would just appear to us in Person, and poof! All our questions would be answered.

 

Aw, nuts. Who wants a world with no mysteries and no questions? I, for one, am happy to wait for answers in the big armchair quarterback session up in heaven . . . the one that'll last an eternity . . . and which I hope I share with that cute young couple with the awesome engagement story, and all of you.

 

We'll all just have to wait 'til then to understand fully how much like that future bridegroom our God really is.

 

He's constantly dropping to one knee in front of you, every day, asking for your heart, ready to put the spectacular diamond ring of eternal salvation on your hand.

 

What if . . . that were true, even though you can't hear Him or see Him?

 

 What if . . . you took a little leap of faith, just said "yes" right now, and lived happily ever after . . . and I do mean "ever"? †