Thirty Years

 "Twenty three years old is too young to be making decisions that will affect the rest of your life, don't you think?"  I don't know...it depends, I guess...it depends on whether you are listening to the voice of the Shepherd or to the voices of the world.

Thirty years ago, Dan and I took our first stroll down Main Street Clarion...it was our first date.  We walked to the restaurant.  I was wearing a jean skirt...he was wearing shoes he had found at the golf course where he used to work during the summers while in college.  I had long, dark brown, wavy hair...he had longish, light brown curls (it was 1991... 80s hair was still a thing)... two totally clueless kids on a first date that neither of them could have foreseen it would turn out to be a life-long commitment. 

The ways of the Lord are truly inscrutable.  

A week later, he'd be walking again...this time, across the stage on commencement day.  We said goodbye. The thought of seeing each other after that day did not truly enter our minds...He was waiting to hear of an internship in California...I still had 2 more years of college and then back to Panama...the odds were just not there.  Life was complicated.  

Some people are in your life for a brief moment, to then disappear forever...leaving only a fuzzy memory... as if in a distant dream.  You don't expect them to ever come back into your life...until a late-summer letter arrives.  I remember sitting on a park bench, I couldn't wait to get back to my dorm...I had to open it right then...a page full of stories, funny looking hand writing, and a phone number.  

I hate making phone calls.  To this day, I avoid them like the plague.  On that moment, that late summer evening, I did not hesitate.  I dialed the number on the letter...a young man's voice said "hello," and that was it.  The story of our lives was given the green light to go on.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!  Romans 11: 33

Praise the Lord! Here's to 30 plus more!