As a young girl, I had a mental picture of how I wanted my love life to look, and I wasn’t going to settle for anything less. I imagined how I’d meet my ‘prince charming.’ We would fall in love at first sight, become great friends, get married and live ‘happily ever after’ like in the storybooks I used to read. “If wishes were horses…” My reality was completely different. It was like God decided to twist the plot of my love story, and he brought me the perfect man who could play His script.
“Get dressed, Babes. We’re going on a date this afternoon”, Hubby told me as he got back from work. “Say no more!” I thought to myself as I dashed into our bedroom to get dressed. I had been waiting for this moment for a long while, and it had finally come. This was a few weeks after our wedding, and I was spending some time with hubby in our beautiful home located in the centre of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. I was to spend a few weeks with him before returning to school in Accra, Ghana. Throughout our courtship, which lasted a few months, we enjoyed lots of virtual dates, given the physical distance between us at the time. We would fantasize about going on actual dates after we got married (‘you rock my world‘ kind of dates, as he would call it). So, I had very high hopes.
“Where could we be going?” I wondered as I scouted for something nice to wear. It was our first date as man and wife, so I wanted to be sure I wasn’t underdressed for the occasion. I tried to inquire where from him without success. He insisted that it was a surprise, so I decided to chillax and enjoy the surprise.
It was a very long walk, but it didn’t matter because we were holding hands and chatting all the way. Although I was enjoying the moment, my busy mind was still figuring out where we were headed. After several minutes, I saw a sign that gave me a clue. You won’t even guess what I saw! We were going to a cathedral!!! 🙄🙄 “What a romantic surprise!” I thought. I mean, who takes his date to a cathedral? 😅😅😅 E clear say I don marry Pastor (proper Overseer pikin 🙆♀️🙆♀️🙆♀️). I kept convincing myself that there was a restaurant somewhere inside the cathedral. I couldn’t imagine for the life of me that hubby would take me – a whole one million yards of me 🤣🤣🤣- to a cathedral for our much-talked-about first date.
In retrospect, I think it was one of our best dates ever! For me, it was eye-opening. Seeing how intricately the cathedrals were built made me imagine how much detail God would have put into the design of our heavenly home. The cathedral was the definition of beauty at its peak… Simply breath-taking! That wasn’t even the memorable thing… We got to a prayer room in the cathedral, and it was lit with beautiful candles. Immediately I stepped into the prayer room, my heart melted. We were there alone, so we had a moment to ourselves. Hubby and I sat there in complete silence. Silent prayers for over half an hour. Our lips were sealed, but our hearts cried out to God with one voice though no words were uttered. We just held each other’s hands and prayed. In that instant, I felt the presence of God (the third person in our three-fold cord of love) so strongly it was as though He was physically there in that empty room with us…
We have had great dates since then – including those in the most beautiful cities, hotels and restaurants in the world – and we are constantly creating new memories. Yet, the memories from our first date hold a special place in my heart.
So, you see, unexpected experiences could often leave the most indelible impressions in our hearts.
Categories: My lifestyle
Pearl's Blog 
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