One year ago, this moment, I was standing in a parking lot looking at a wonderful man that I was convinced had been custom designed for me – all the way down to his blue eyes & biggest fears. It’s been a rough & wonderful weekend…I once expected, and would have thoroughly loved, to be sitting in his church this morning, but as it turns out, I needed the concert at our church. It too, was designed just for me, by the hand of a loving Father who knows what it’s like to love & lose & wait for the joyous reunion…

He knows that our patience and our trust run thin, our fears run deep, and our feet sometimes simply want to run – far, and fast, and forever. He loves us enough to let us beat on his chest & scream that life’s not fair and we don’t like it when our plans fall through… He loves us enough to tell us that He has the plan, and it’ll all work out, and it’ll be better than we could have dreamed.

For who among us, without first seeing samples, could dream of mountains & rivers & birds in flight? Who could have imagined a zebra, or giraffe, or duck-billed platypus without first seeing them, or something like them? All these, He made from thin air, from nothing but His own imagination and the words “Let there be…”.

In an instant, he created all that was, then knelt in the created dirt, scooped with his own hand, and carefully fashioned a man, giving that man life with His own breath… and again, He took a rib and shaped it into a perfect companion. He can do anything in the mere blink of an eye, but takes His time with the most precious things, and He considers us the most precious…

One musn’t rush the artist, to do so is to risk spoiling the masterpiece. He who has promised is faithful and true – He is at work in us both to will and to do according to His good pleasure, and works all things together for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Wait, my precious ones, for the companions God has designed to work beside you for His glory…it won’t be easy, by a long shot, but it will be more than worth it, and you can look forward to spending your days praising God together – why settle for less??

(ps: 2011 update – Mr. Blue Eyes has since married someone else.  May God bless them.)