Have you ever watched the show “Let’s Make a Deal?”
You know.
The one where people have crazy challenges and dress up like leprechauns and mermaids and circus clowns. The show where someone has to choose what’s behind door number one or door number two.
And sometimes they’ll choose the door that opens to reveal a car or a trip to Paris or sometimes an amazing set of luggage or a scuba diving outfit.
But sometimes the door opens…
…and there’s just a donkey eating a bale of hay.
Doors are funny like that.
You’re never really sure what’s on the other side.
Like these doors.
Years ago, I stood right here in front of these very doors with tears in my eyes.
And when I chose what was behind door number one.
My life changed forever.
Sigh.
Several decades ago, I stood right here in front of these doors with my father wearing my grandmother’s wedding dress with a monogrammed train and a veil covering the highest head of Aqua Net hair you have ever seen with a red lipstick smile the size of Texas.
And on the other side, a tuxedo-wearing cutie was waiting for me in a room filled with twinkly Christmas trees and a white aisle runner and candles with the scent of evergreen filling the air.
The doors slowly opened as the flower girl walked through them with the ring bearer, leading the way for six bridesmaids in green velvet gowns with satin skirts—followed by my maid of honor.
Then the doors closed….
….leaving my father and I alone in the hallway.
There was a hush and a pause on the other side of the doors in the sanctuary and in that moment my father whispered words of encouragement to me.
And then?
The first chords of the wedding march started and the doors opened and I took those first tentative steps through the doors into my new life.
I don’t remember much about that day after the “I do.”
The rest was a blur.
After we got married, we moved away from Texas and then moved back and then moved away to Kentucky and then moved back again and during that time, the church went through a lot of changes. A bigger church was built and this part of the building became a youth center. And now there are even more changes—they are building a new youth center and this part of the church is being torn down.
Yes.
It’s true.
Much to my sadness, after next week, these doors and the building and the place where we got married will be gone.
So this past Sunday, I went by to tell the doors goodbye with actual door hugging involved. I stood there with my arms around the doors. People would walk by and I’d tell them the story of the doors. I’d tell them about the wedding and the dress and the Christmas trees and the red lipstick and my father.
It was wonderful and nostalgic and sad and sweet all at the same time.
And as I stood there looking at the space where we got married all those years ago, I turned to my husband with a look in my eyes.
He knows that look.
He’s seen it a zillion times.
I have an idea—that look said. Could we? Should we?
What if we recreated that long-ago moment on our wedding day in the exact spot?
So we went to the front of the building where we stood all those years ago listening to these vows:
I take you.
To have and to hold.
For richer. For poorer.
In sickness and in health.
To love and to cherish until death do us part.
And of course—the very best part of the ceremony.
You may now kiss the bride.
Here we are walking through the doors back then.
And here we are walking through those doors now.
I am so thankful.
And grateful for all the moments.
All those years.
All those months and days and minutes and seconds spent together.
A journey of a thousand steps with this pair of twinkling eyes walking right beside me.
I wish I could go back tell that girl with the Aqua Net hair that life with her groom would be even more amazing than she could ever imagine.
And the most exciting life was waiting for her.
Right after she walked through these doors.
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