The plan was this: After dinner the four of us (Taylor and
Bruno – no, not Bruno Mars – Kenzie and I) would go to get coffee. On the way
back Taylor would make the call and mom and dad would set up.
Coffee
was had (well kinda, I barely sipped on mine) and the call was made. As we
drove back to the house my heart was pounding, my arms were shaking. We parked,
got out of the car, and made our way inside.
“Look,
remember when we were in India and were looking at Orin’s Belt? You can see it
here too,” I stalled.
We
hugged and walked inside. I set my coffee on the kitchen counter and led my
somewhat confused girlfriend through the dining room. I was shaking like a
scared dog.
I
sat her down in the prepared chair, knelt to my knees, pulled over the bowl and
pitcher her parents had bought for us, and slipped both her shoes off. The
water was warm on her feet and in my hands; I rubbed her feet saying something
about wanting to love her like Jesus loves his church and how she is my pure
and spotless bride because of Christ.
“I
want to love you for all my life, I want to die to myself for you to the glory
of God,” I remember saying.
Then
I pulled the ring box, which was set beside her chair, “Will you be the
blessing of God on my life and become my one and only wife?” I asked.
“YES!”
she nearly screamed.
And
even now the tears run down my cheeks to remember the moment when Mackenzie
said yes to be my wife, that I might forever attempt (and feebly so) to show
her the love that God is calling me to give to her, that forever we are to be
an image of Christ and his Church to all peoples around us, that the covenant
we’ve promised to make will stand before God, angels, demons, and men alike to
radically and consistently show that God has done this for his glory.
Yet
what is more astounding than any of this is the simple and plain reality that
this story is small pennies compared with what God has already done. For God to
take two people and bring them together is an easy task for God, it’s easy for
him to arrange two trips to be the same dates, and two people to have the same
quirky personalities. It’s easy for God to move a seeming mountain of past
failures and show them for what they really are, his providential plan.
It’s
easy for him to do that because he’s already done the impossible. He’s already
made a way through death to life and made the dry bones of the valley become
living, breathing, fighting, and loving children of Him, the King.
By
sending Jesus he has done the impossible and reconciled sinners to himself by
making peace with us by the blood of Jesus’ cross. This is the astounding story
that ought to be seen in this true tale of engagement and the wonders of the
providence of God. Yes, God is good because he’s brought two to become one, but
infinitely more so is God good because he has made a way for men’s souls to be
eternally and solidly redeemed.
This
is the business of our God. This is the reason all my cynicism must die and all
my hope must forever be on and in God. To cast myself – no, ourselves - fully
on him, no doubt, no fear, but to jump off the cliff and hope (eager
expectation) that God will be the one who catches us.
Mackenzie
and I are just a catalyst story for the gospel, nothing more. Jesus is much
more beautiful than her gorgeousness; He is much more stunning than her eyes;
He is constantly more faithful than the uninterrupted nature of her engagement
ring.
And this, my friends, is how God brought us together. To forever give him praise and adoration in the design he has made, the web he has woven, and the love he has, and is, and will always grow. We are, because he is. He is, therefore we are. Our God has done this, he has provided, he will continue to do it. We are confident, comfortable, and eagerly expectant that our life will be to the praise of his glorious grace and the preaching of his beautiful gospel to the people of this dying world!
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