“I just knew.” A few moments before, my grandmother had recounted the awe-inspiring story of how she and my grandfather met. The instant he laid eyes on her, Granddaddy proclaimed to the woman sitting on the church pew next to him, “See that girl right there? I’m gonna marry her someday.” The woman called him a “tacky child,” but his precognition could not have been more accurate. Absolutely astonished, I asked my grandma how she had responded. To my utter bewilderment, she shrugged and calmly kept stirring the dough of her generations-renown cookies. “I wasn’t surprised. I just accepted that it would happen.” Her seemingly commonplace comment that followed hit me hard. “I just knew.” How could she possibly become perfectly certain about something so life-changing in such a short amount of time?

This absolute certainty, reflected in the relationships of my parents and grandparents, surrounded me during my childhood. These principal role models of mine knew without a doubt that their relationships were meant to be, and I never questioned the motives or reasoning behind them; instead, I simply equated real-world true love with that of fairytales – no doubt, no uncertainty, and undying devotion. As I matured, I grew to accept this idea as true to an even stronger degree, but my wonder at how such an intense attraction could come about grew astronomically. This bafflement came about due to a series of significant events, beginning with the birthday party my dad held for my mom a few years back.

At the party, my dad showed a movie he had made of the different stages of my mom’s life. We watched screen after screen of pictures of her childhood, her family, and her college years. Eventually, Joe Cocker’s husky voice broke through, replacing “The Way We Were” with “You Are So Beautiful.” My father tenderly described the night he first met my mom, saying, “Stephanie was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I knew at that moment that I would marry her someday.” Despite the immediate feelings my dad felt for her, my mom did not quite have the same impression of him; rather, she thought he was a polite, handsome nerd with ceramic animals all over his house. Nevertheless, she eventually came to realize without a doubt that my dad was the one and only man for her. When I realized the positive assurance felt by both my parents when they fell in love, I began to question how such a powerful, life-changing awakening could occur in such a short amount of time and with absolutely no doubt.

I became even more astonished and confounded by the aforementioned experience with my grandmother in her kitchen. After I recovered from my bewilderment at their mutual foresight of the 52-year marriage to come, I realized that this phenomenon of doubtless assurance could not possibly be explained by human reasoning. My questioning had been all for naught, for I could never know the answer to something completely unanswerable. Some things in life, I realized, are simply meant to be known, not understood.

Although obscure and illogical, the beauty of true love cannot be denied. It fills the beholder with excitement and joy, unconditional devotion, and inexplicable peace. As a child, I knew this to be true, for my entire world revolved around true love: true love between my parents, grandparents, and couples in fairytales and other classic stories. During these early years, I also knew that when love is meant to be, its captives know it with absolute certainty and not a trace of doubt. As Jessica Alba says in Valentine’s Day when she leaves her former fiancé, “Would you rather have a woman who has to consider marrying you, or do you want someone who just knows it’s right?” Now that I am older, I do not simply accept this mysterious certainty; rather, I have enormous gratitude for the fact that the inexplicable force creating this baffling characteristic of love will never be known by man. Love, a beautiful collision of body, mind, and spirit, will never be understood by anyone but God himself. I desire to learn more about it and grow in it, and one day, maybe I will be able to experience this no-questions-asked, unconditional, head-over-heels crazy love.