Perfect Couple

I notice them every year here. I’m sure every one else does too, everywhere they go. They must be in their late 40’s by now. And they are SO beautiful. They don’t look a whole lot younger than they are, but they are so attractive and so incredibly fit for their age. They stand out still in a camp of 800 people this week. They are athletic, highly fashionable, well-dressed, obviously wealthy, always seeming happy together, smiling and laughing at all times throughout the day in their conversations with others. They look like they have it all together. During the meeting this morning I had this thought that it would be interesting to sit by them during a meal and find out more about them. But would they be “too good” to talk to us? They seemed to chat mostly with their high-class friends.

God has a sense of humor. An hour later we were sitting at their lunch table. This was a total coincidence. When we picked the table they were getting their food, so we didn’t know who’d saved their seats at our table.

They never talked to us because they had a friend they were chatting with the entire time. And by that conversation I learned plenty. The first part of the conversation was small-talk about various people. For each person they mentioned how good-looking and how successful that person was. Their definition of “successful” seemed to revolve around owning businesses.

In the second part the husband was gone and it was just 2 women talking. I learned this wasn’t his first marriage. I learned there are difficult issues with his ex-wife and daughter. I learned she felt hurt early on in their marriage by his past reputation as a “player,” which people would bring up jokingly even in front of their children. I learned she finds him still flirtatious but admits she is too. Then a younger man who I guessed to be her sons' counselor (they have 2 boys in high school) came up to say hi, and I got to see her major flirting right on the spot!

All this to say the grass isn’t always greener, and appearances aren’t everything. I should have guessed that their looks didn’t come without a major focus in their life being attractiveness. I would like to hear more of their conversations. I would be interested in finding out what they’ve missed along the way. There’s more to life than good looks and “success.”