In January of 2002 I was a sophomore in college. It would be two and a half years until I met my future husband and an additional three and a half before I married him. And yet, this is about the time my grandmother happily announced to me that she had bought my wedding gift. “I’m going to leave it under my nightstand and put a note on it so that in case I die, people will know who it’s for” “But Grandma, how do you know I’m ever going to get married?”. She never answered that one. Over the years, when my mind wasn’t occupied with various other things, sometimes I would ponder what it was that was sitting under my grandma’s nightstand waiting for my wedding day. I’ve always thought it was probably some sort of fancy bible.
Sunday afternoon, after a good nights sleep in our own bed, Ben and I decided it was time to open our wedding gifts. Wedding magazines and guides always say that a couple should register for more gifts than they have guests, so I felt bad breaking the rules and registering for fewer. As it turns out, this was ok as many of our guests decided to give us gifts off the registry, money, and cards, all of which were awesome. As my mom had predicted, it was just like Christmas. No, actually, it was just like being a kid at Christmas, except I doubt there are many kids that would get so excited about mixing bowls, iron skillets and camping stoves. To add a little surreality to the situation, Ben and I received a few unsigned and puzzling gifts. One turned out to be a mail organizer hand painted with large pink flowers and vines. I kept this by my side, joyfully basking in the mystery of the thing. Someone else left us an unsigned card with a very generous gift inside. My only wish is that these people, if they had desired to remain unknown, had signed their gifts “The Phantom” or maybe “Kilroy was here” so we didn’t have to feel obligated to track down the mysterious gift givers to thank them. I hate to think of some aunt or uncle out there feeling bad about not receiving a thank you card, never knowing that it was because they failed to tell us who their gift was from.
There was one gift that kept catching my eye while we opened cards and waded through packing material. It’s paper fragile and the bow huge and slightly worn. When I got a little closer to it, I noticed the strong smell of my grandma’s perfume. We opened it carefully, and lifted the lid off of the Styrofoam box. My mind expected to see golden letters spelling out “Holy Bible” so it took me a second to take in what I was seeing. It was a little yellow tea set painted with flowers. On the bottom of every piece it says “Crystal Cathedral, 1970-2002.” along with a line from Corinthians 13:4-8. Ben and I are looking forward to dressing up in our nice clothes and sending her a picture of us using it. To my slight disappointment, we’re pretty sure the card attached to her gift wasn’t 6 years old. Although I suppose one could make the argument that she just correctly guessed that the name of my future husband would be Ben.