Stars have long been the mailbox for wishes about finding the person of your dreams. I like that it aims our attention heavenward. There is a delightful children's book called Starlight Bride by Paul Owen Lewis that describes a prince and young woman who both ask God to lead them to true marriage love using the brightness of a star. 

I have heard of deals people make with the Lord to show them a sign of who to marry. My own husband had one. He and His Maker had an understanding... if John found a woman who felt the same way as he did about why babies die, and how it fits between providence and freedom, he would marry her. 

We were driving in my white '65 Mustang when he asked me, back in 1979, what I thought about such things. I launched into how I had wrestled the pieces together in my mind, and finished as we were waiting at a red light on Route 202. He said nothing. 

I thought, "He thinks I am stupid."

He thought, "I have to marry her."

It was several months before John made good on his promise, and proposed, and longer still until he told me about The Deal.

Another sweet children's book is For the Love of Autumn, by Patricia Polacco. In it the main character articulates her own conditions under which she will know her future husband when she sees him.

There are people who read these messages who have been married for two, or two score years. Others are newly engaged. Some have been widowed, or weathered divorce. Some are finding joy in a second union. I honor all of you for your intention to nourish a love of marriage. 

Yet there is another group reading, for whom I hold a particularly soft spot: people who have yet to choose the person they will aim at forever with.

Today my wish is that God will send a star to shine brightly in your night sky.