[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Walton County courthouse is a marvelous place to be during the afternoon. If you sit in one chair for more than a few minutes, you’ll see interesting people pop through the double doors. You’ll see boaters renewing tags, folks paying taxes, and of course, people buying marriage licenses.

I saw one such young couple.

“Baby,” the young man said to his girlfriend. “How was I supposed to know? I had no idea it cost so much to get married, I brought all the cash I had.”

“You mean to tell me,” his girlfriend said, rubbing her extended belly. “We can’t get married because you’re short twenty-eight dollars?” “And fifty cents,” he added. Two of us standing nearby, who happened to be renewing our tags to the tune of several hundred dollars, approached the couple with cash in hand. “Excuse me,” I said. “We couldn’t help but overhear. We have twenty-six dollars here.” The man thanked us and pointed out that he still needed two dollars. “And fifty cents,” his girlfriend added. So, we went out to our trucks and scavenged through loose change in our ashtrays. After ten minutes of digging, we came up with three dollars in quarters. The man hugged us both. “Do you want to be witnesses for our wedding?” the girl asked us. Well, I’d never witnessed a courthouse wedding. I can’t say that I’ve had many friends get married that way. It was a short ceremony. The County Clerk waived the extra fee as a wedding gift. The newlyweds kissed, then said a prayer while the Clerk and witnesses bowed our heads. “…And Lord,” the new husband closed his prayer with. “Thank you for this woman, I don’t want to ever live without her. And if one day you ever decide to call her home, you’re just going to have to take me too.” Let people say what they want about the world. God knows it can be a nasty place if you look in the right places. Ugliness and hatred on every corner, advertising itself in magazines, and on television. But, there’s love out there. Somewhere. You don’t have to go look for it. It’ll find you.