a divine conspiracy (the story of us: part 1)

I was 22, and he was 21 when we first met. It was November and cold enough to wear long sleeves. It was a mutual friend, mine from college and his from elementary school all the way up to college, who decided we might be a good match. I’m not sure if it was that he thought we would be a good match as much as it was that this friend of ours was tired of seeing me pick the wrong guy. Truthfully, I was tired of picking the wrong guy.

I’d already decided I would never get married. I had plans. After a summer of camp life and China, I wanted to teach, to spread my wings as far as they could go and fly across the world at least once. There were possibilities of teaching overseas or teaching at an inner-city school in America. There were options, none of which included meeting the person created for me to share my life with, and I planned to pursue every single option.

And then I met him. It was awkward at first. We met at Barnes and Noble. We’d seen each other’s pictures from Facebook but had never met. We were both on the phone and then hung up when we finally met near the checkout line. He had a book in hand, Irresistible Revolution, that he purchased for our mutual friend, and after a few minutes of how-do-you-do’s at Barnes and Noble, we left for On the Border.

Our friend was a waiter, at the time, and we decided that instead of suffering through the date we would lighten things up with someone else. We ate dessert and talked. Or rather, we ate dessert and I spent most of the time talking. I talked about China, about outreach, about the future and my passions. I responded to text messages from friends, asking when the date would be over. I flitted to a table with a different (guy) friend of mine. I ended the date and left, glad for dessert and with a tingling in my soul but the decision that I still wasn’t ready to pursue any sort of relationship.

I spent the evening with girl friends, out on Campus Corner, with my thoughts drifting to him no matter how hard I tried to keep them from him. When I woke up the next morning, there was a slight sense of panic as the thought settled on me that I had met the person who fit me the way God intended him too.

I wasn’t ready to give up on my dreams or on the thought of never settling down into married life. No matter the feelings I had, and even after I expressed said feelings, I refused to think about not spreading my wings to fly.

But as is often the case, God had other plans for my life, and His plans included my accepting the notion that I had met my match and settling into a life with him.

This post is part of a series. It is a snapshot of how I met (and married) my husband. To read the entire series, click here.