Searching for Happily Ever After

Instead of hopeless, I’d much rather view myself as a “hopeful” romantic. This sentimental heart was in full bloom even as a little girl watching the classics like Cinderella or Snow White, and playing with one of my dearest friends. Her name was Barbie and she was from some far away land called Mattel.® Barbie and I went on tons of adventures together. She and I thought and acted as one. As a pastor’s kid, my family moved around a lot. Fortunately, Barbie and I never had to say goodbye as was the case with my other friends. She was always ready to follow me to the ends of the earth. One of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon would involve dreaming up some big adventure where in a series of events, Barbie would find herself in some kind of distress. She would call for help and just in time, our Prince (Rock Star Ken, in this case) would come to the rescue riding, yes you guessed it, on a white horse. I cannot tell you how many times that I had Barbie rehearse our little drama. Somehow, the story just never got old. I fail to remember when it was that I put Barbie in her case for the last time, but I know that there came a time when it was not considered “mature” anymore to go around using your Barbie dolls to dramatize your own longed for fairytale. Somewhere along the way, a few people even told me to get my head out of the clouds. They wanted to make it very clear to me that life is not a fairytale and happily-ever-afters simply do not exist in the real world. I went along with their line of thinking, but I was secretly crushed. No matter how hard I tried to let go of my happily-ever-after dreams, they just would not die. Then one day, Christ whispered to my heart and His words blew the doors off of my imprisoned childhood dreams. It was then that I knew for sure that happily-ever-after was real after all.

Jack and Helen Watkins In June of 2000, I was a counselor at our church’s summer youth camp. It was a pretty tough week. I remember those who had come out from our church were pretty broken because our pastor’s wife, Helen Watkins, had just passed away due to heart complications. Some of us had to actually leave the camp in order to go to her funeral. I cried so much that like the Psalmist, I was “worn out with sobbing” and my pillow was continually “wet from weeping (Ps. 6:6).” I wish you could have seen them together. Pastor Walter (Jack) Watkins and Helen really loved each other. He was such a gentleman who spoke so highly of his beloved wife and was the kind of man who would open car doors or take her hand to lead her up a flight of stairs. Pastor would often tell us stories about their love affair. My favorite was the one he would tell about risking his life to save Helen from drowning in a raging river current. I would always watch them together and notice that they would find little ways to show one another that they cared. So, needless to say, I was pretty devastated when she passed away. My heart was broken. In this world where so many couples have horrible marriages and selfish relationships, why did Helen have to leave? Their love story profoundly impacted me. It had given me hope. * * * * Back at youth camp, the Thursday evening service was coming to a close. The young ladies I was chaperoning for the week had left their seats to go and pray at the altar. I was moving out of my seat to go and pray with them, when I heard the Lord say to me, “Stay here, I want to talk to you for a while.” At that point, I broke and began to pour out my heart to the Lord asking every “why” question I could think of. “Why did Helen have to go? Pastor and Helen were my inspiration. Why now? Their love affair is a legacy. I will even tell my own children about the beautiful love story of Pastor Jack and Helen and how he saved her from that raging river long ago,” I cried. That’s when I heard God say, “Amber, I want our love affair to be a legacy.” I was totally blown away. It took me a few days to get over the shock of such a personal encounter with God. I began to seek the Lord like never before and He began to speak or maybe I began to really listen as He unveiled, through the Word, His longing to have a love affair between Himself and His bride, which included me. He revealed to me what I have come to call: “The Great Legacy Love Affair”