Michael and I went to church together for the last time as single people, and the pastor mentioned something that caught me as very profound. Mercy is when God doesn't give us what we deserve, but grace is when God gives us what we don't deserve. Wow. And it's so true! We are sinners, we are filth, yet God many times will withold that from us. God is graceful, and gives us way more than we could ever ask or imagine.
As some of you know, on Friday we threw Michael a surprise party :D His birthday is October 11, but we will be in Maui, so we decided to celebrate early with friends here in CO. He and I hung out most of the day (after I made dinner and set it all up, unbeknownst to him, hehe), and went to the chiropractor. The whole day he was talking about what he wanted to do that night, what we should have for dinner, what we should do after dinner, how we should call certain people and check on certain things. I would nod accordingly and continue on our way. Once we arrived home, I patiently waited while he wanted to get the mail and bring in the trash bins and check out the flowers out front. He walked into the laundry room and immediately thought we were being robbed, as about 5 of our friends jumped up and yelled and threw balloons at him.
Talk about mercy and grace. Lately I've felt that life can sometimes be just a giant surprise party from God. If you would have asked me three years ago if I would have been getting married, I would have said maybe, but not in my wildest dreams to this man :D If you would have asked me if he would be sweet, sensitive, tall, and dark, I would have never guessed. I was a lot like Michael.. talking about what I should do this year and the next, things I should accomplish and work toward, who I should be friends with and what kind of person I would be. SURPRISE! There are far bigger plans than I could ever have dreamed up, nor planned. When some people find out I'm almost married, they say we're so young, that we need to wait such and such time, that we shouldn't have kids (which, Lord willing, we'll try not to!), that we shouldn't have to worry about marital affairs right now. Well, Michael's birthday party was two weeks before it's time, I think God just knows when it's time and when the SURPRISE is best. I don't think of marriage as a lifetime commitment (well, ok yes I do). I think of marriage as a DAILY commitment. Every moment of every day I am committed to Michael as my number 2, to slay the foxes that might possibly come between us, and love him and serve him as the only human man for me. The only difference is, I know this surprise is coming next week!
