Beautiful Surprises
- Julia
- Nov 5, 2018
- 3 min read
I love surprises. Or at least I say I do. But if I’m being honest, I think I love the idea of surprises, but then my control issues come into play and I would want to know any and all surprise details, which kind of ruins it for the surpriser (sorry husband 😘). And presents? Forget it. I’ll find your hiding spots, even if they’re not for me 🎁! Life is a little different. I can, and have tried to control things in my life. If you’ve read some of my other posts, you can see how well that worked out. But along the way I’ve been blessed with surprises that were far beyond my expectations. A few Fridays ago was one of those times. Because of our work schedule we hadn’t been to church in a few weeks, and we missed it. A lot. We had heard about a worship night and when we realized it was on a Friday, and we would be with the girls we looked at each other with the same idea of bringing them.
As the date got closer, I started having reservations. They would hate it, refuse to go, be completely uninterested. But...none of those things happened! In fact, to our surprise, it was the complete opposite. We could see the hesitancy at first. But once the music came on we were both brought to tears. Two girls were almost immediately right up front. I have so many pictures and videos on my phone because they wanted to record it all, to hear again. One girl had her arms raised the entire time. Afterwards she said she felt like she couldn’t put them down, spoke of words she heard about the Holy Spirit and healing, something she's in need of. Another said she’d never felt that way before, not caring about what anyone thought of her, dancing, arms raised in praise. She felt free.
For real y’all 😭😭 (<—accurate representation of what we looked like).
One of our sweet girls is not Christian and I was worried she would be the one to refuse going. But she didn’t. And about halfway through I saw her getting restless and asked if she wanted to go outside for a bit. We ended up having an awesome conversation about her life and faith. She was curious about “the whole God thing” and it was so encouraging to see how the Holy Spirit was working in her, even if she didn't realize it yet. We stopped for ice cream on the way home and for a few minutes it was just her and I. She said one thing she wanted to do when she figured everything out was to write down her testimony. I’m hoping we can encourage her to do it regardless.
If you’re counting that would have been like surprise 2,396 of the night! Why in the world would we have ever doubt that God couldn't take our reservations and make them into a beautiful surprise?
We are so thankful for our community. For amazing church family and friends, for people who pray for us, call to check in and make sure we're doing okay, or just to tell us they love us. For nights of worship, where we can get a glimpse of our girls with guards down and hearts open. Free from all the things that weigh them down in this life. A glimpse of who God says they are, and can be, with Him at the center of their lives. Believing, even briefly, that they are valuable and loved when the world tried its hardest to say otherwise.
I don’t think I could have ever imagined this dream months ago would lead us to where we are now and I can't wait to keep seeing how it unfolds 💛
