Love Story

I met a guy when I was nineteen who talked about Jesus as if Jesus was his best friend even more deranged as if Jesus was alive!  This guy was super cute, sweet & smart- but above all he was a young man of faith.  How he managed to win my agnostic heart I will never know.  We were both immigrants - he was from Romania and his culture was very similar to mine and he treated me with the utmost respect.  Due to some things in my past, I was very suspicious of men, but his patience and acceptance helped me trust him.  I will never forget how he calmly waited two months until I was ready to hold hands, any physical demonstration of our love took a long time to come about, but he waited patiently.  On dates his reaction to things always surprised me, if we had a rude waiter or if we weren’t seated quickly he didn’t let it affect him – I’d be fuming and he would just squeeze my hand and smile. He was the son of a pastor and had grown up with God very present in his life. God to him was like air or water to any human being.  He was my first love- looking back the things I most loved about him all pointed towards God.

 

How He Loves Us, My favorite Worship Song Right Now

Needless to say after six years of my first love trying to convert me, he finally gave up and left me with the following words to ponder, “Penny, I can’t marry someone who won’t be in heaven with me when we both die.”  Imagine the surprise he will feel when we both meet up there Hahaha I haven’t seen him since, but my past belongs to the past and he’s my past…  There’s this great song by Guatemalan poet, Ricardo Arjona, that states something to the effect that our past relationships are our schooling and the one we marry is our graduation (smile). 

I love this one too!

The thing is that all of my existence God has been searching for me just as He is searching for you.  There are times when glancing back at my life I see instances so evident of God trying to get my attention.  And while people will give up on you, He never will. My first love thought it was his job to convert me—but that is so erroneous!  Conversion belongs to God and no one else (smile).

My prayer, "Here's my heart Lord."

I remember the first moment that I acknowledged that I needed God- November sixteenth 2004, the day my brother died.  But I cannot pin-point the moment that I fell head-over-heels in love with Him because like any relationship it was gradual.  I would be pumping gas and my mind would be thinking of Him or I would be stuck in traffic and I would engage Him in conversation.  I stalked Him by reading countless books about Him or going to the true source (the Bible).  My thoughts were about Him and Him alone… Today, Jesus is my best friend and I need God like I need air or water.  My hope is that my future spouse will be attracted to God in me as I in him(smile).