Meeting Christian

My greatest gift on earth, after salvation

I met Christian in a season of my life where I was praying for someone to do life with forever. I was living alone in Tuscaloosa, serving in the college ministry at my church, and completing my clinical fellowship in speech pathology.

I loved the ministry I got to be part of, but I’ll never forget the moment I prayed, “Lord, I am so grateful to participate in what you are doing around me, I just really desire a partner to do all of this with. Someone to help make this ministry even stronger and effective for your glory. I believe you when you say that we are better together.” I have always prayed for my husband and trusted in God’s perfect timing. I have always loved Love and desired to be married one day. Whenever my friends would ask me about what I wanted in my future husband I would say, “I just love him so much already!!!” I always believed and trusted God would provide the desires of my heart, as I focused my attention and heart’s affection on delighting in Him. I prayed for him every day. However, this time in prayer was different. It was different because there was a heart change. No longer was I asking him for a husband for my gain but for the single purpose of joining together with a kingdom partner to give it all away for Christ.

One of my best friends had been talking to her mom, who is a mentor of mine, for months about how to set Christian and me up or to at least get us in the same room. They knew him from student ministry in Birmingham and thought we could be a good fit. However, they were slow to introduce us because they didn’t want to force anything. One night, when I was at a co-ed small group with my friend she somehow managed to get Christian and me in the same car.

We were leaving the group with some of Christian’s friends and headed to get ice cream. We picked Christian and his roommate up at his house, and he dove his arms through the window of the front seat to hug me. (Now, I must say, that was a great first impression!!) We got to have a long one-on-one conversation at ice cream and I’ll never forget the way he spoke of his love for God and passion for the assignments God had given him. I left thinking “Wow, Lord, I would love an opportunity to talk with that guy some more. I have more questions for him!” I was so encouraged by him and remember consciously making an effort to adjust my life that next week to ensure I was “living surrendered” in every aspect of my life, just as he so evidently did. I left thinking I want to be more like him.

I went back to Tuscaloosa to finish my last two weeks of work and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope Christian would somehow get my number and call… he didn’t! But I still hoped I would run into him again one day.

For several months, I had known my next step was to move back to my hometown in Birmingham once I finished my clinical fellowship. A few days after I returned home, another friend of mine invited me to a “cookout at Stark’s house.”

I was internally freaking out, while also trying to play it cool!!! I was going to get to see Christian again and I was so excited!

That Thursday night at the cookout, I watched him serve everyone in the room. I’ll never forget the way he ran around preparing the food for us, while someone making every single person in the room feel seen and known. Christian would stop, hug them, ask how they were doing, and then get right back to serving all of us. He was so helpful, yet not taking for granted an opportunity to value the person in his home.
(And let me tell you, he hasn’t changed a bit. Christian shows me the love of Jesus as he serves me and others with all of his heart, while also meeting us intentionally right where we are to show honor and love.)

That night we got to talk on his porch by ourselves again. We talked about our dreams, and what we felt God was calling us to do in this season and in the ones to come. Two days later, at 9 AM I saw I had a voicemail from a 770 number. I immediately called back, still out of breath from my cycling class, to hear him huffing and puffing as he ran through the airport. He asked me to go on a date with him 2 weeks later when he returned.

I have admired Christian since the moment I met him, but since then, my admiration for him has only grown. My love for him and Jesus deepens every day, as he loves me with unconditional love. It is a “love regardless” kind of love that makes me feel nothing less than understood, cherished and accepted. Just as Jesus does. I will consider it my greatest honor to walk through life with Jesus and Christian for the rest of my days- pursuing Christ first, and then one another, as we live out the calling God has for our soon to be family!