It's You

7 years ago today my best friend pulled me aside after youth group. He told me that there was a girl that he really, really liked. He needed my advice on how to ask her out. He was leaving for college a couple months later and didn't want to leave without telling her.

I was instantly green with jealousy, but I swallowed it and prepared to be put in the "friend zone." Part of me wanted to keep being the best friend, but the rest of me knew better. He was about to replace me.The last 5 years of innocent childhood friendship was over.

Dramatic much? yeah...I know...

"Um...I dunno, I guess just be honest." I said halfheartedly.

 It hit me then that I liked Josh too, but if he was in love with someone else, I figured it was too late to say so. I couldn't think of anyone that he might like, but I surprised myself by hating her...whoever she was. I instantly wanted to build a dart board and put her name in the bulls eye.

I didn't know what to do. So I just asked him who she was and suggested he go find her and tell her right away. Well, he didn't go anywhere.

"It's you" he said.

I'm glad I didn't build a dartboard, because that girl he couldn't live without was me! It was ME! It was a pleasant surprise that probably altered the course of my life.

Fast forward 7 years, and we're a long, long ways from where we ever expected to be. I still laugh every time I think about that night. If anybody would have told us then, that 7 years in the future, we'd be married, we'd be parents, and I'd be sitting here writing a mushy blog post about us, we'd have awkwardly laughed in their faces. I didn't expect anything would come of it.  I told Josh that night that I figured we could date a while and see what happened. He declared that he wouldn't ask me to marry him!

We can never know what our future holds, but we can know with certainty: God does. The plans he has for us are better than anything we could make happen. Josh wasn't part of my plan. To me, falling in love was foolishness and optional, and I didn't have time for wasting time. Even when I accidentally found myself in love, I didn't expect it would have a happy ending. God must have a sense of humor. He gave me exactly what I didn't know I wanted.

Thanks God.

And Josh, there's only one person I want to spend the next 7 years with....It's you.

 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, 

plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:11