Thanks to all that have left comments or sent other notes regarding these MBM posts. I hope they encourage you to think about the standing stones in your own lives and that you will create your own memorial box filled with symbols of God’s living and breathing presence in your families.
For today’s post I’ll go back almost 20 years. I was in my second year at PCC and was spending a semester abroad in England at a sister college. It was a very memorable time in my life, one filled with friendship, learning, traveling, and growing by leaps and bounds in my faith. At the end of the semester I had made arrangements to spend the summer in France working with missionaries before returning back to the States/PCC in the fall.
Due to some unforeseen circumstances my plans for spending the summer in France fell through at the last minute. You can imagine my anxiety at having the rug pulled out from under me and wondering what I was to do. A few different options were presented and I talked to mentors, prayed, and prayed a whole lot more. In the period of about a week I knew without a doubt that God was directing me to return to southern CA and work for the summer. It didn’t seem very grand compared to spending the summer in France, but it was a time like very few others when I have felt God so real and present, a very intense week of spiritual growth for me. The disappointment of failed plans had disappeared and I was excited about what was ahead.
I flew back to CA and spent a week with my grandmother before driving down to school to look for a job. I spent the first couple of nights in the dorms with a friend until we could move into our apartment. While there she pointed out a guy that had said he wanted to meet me. I had never seen him before and naively thought that maybe he wanted to talk to me about my time in Europe or my time in Japan. Just a bit later I was walking out of the dorms and “the guy” was walking towards me. I smiled at him and expected him to say something, but he just looked down and kept on walking. I thought it was weird and wasn’t sure what to think, but I started to wonder if something else was up.
Meanwhile I had been blessed with being able to return to my old job at the drugstore. Just a couple of days later I was working at the cosmetics counter and over walks “the guy” straight towards me and smiling. My heart was pounding and I’m sure my cheeks were burning. “The guy” and I made some small chit chat about our mutual friends and we also learned that we had quite a bit in common. He said he had just come by the store to say good-bye to a mutual friend that worked with me. He said he was driving back to the midwest and all of a sudden in my heart I felt a panic and was so sad that he was leaving. I was greatly relieved when he explained that he was just going for a visit and would be back in a couple of weeks.
I’m sure you’ve figured out that “the guy” was none other than Chris. After he returned from a visit home we quickly started spending lots of time together and I knew from the get-go that this was my future husband, this was why God had closed the door to France, this was His summer plan for me. I wasn’t “supposed” to be in California, and Chris wasn’t even “supposed” to be there either. He was supposed to be in school in Missouri. But God. We dated for a year and were engaged for a year before getting married and the rest is history.
So in our Memorial Box we have a small bottle of Eternity perfume to represent where Chris and I met and how God’s timing was everything. It’s the perfume I wore at the time and I think the name also bears significance too. Thank you Father for guiding our steps and for bringing us together in such a memorable way. You are good all the time! When we think the worst has come and OUR plans have failed, YOUR plans prevail and you bless us with far more than we ask or imagine.
Please refer to my original Memorial Box Monday post or to Linny’s blog to read more about a Memorial Box.
