One More Day...

My friends Ashley & Craig are getting married tomorrow night! I tried calling Ashley, but the phone was off... made me think of the night before my wedding, NOT that long ago, when I tried to go to bed at a decent hour, and, try as I might, sleep would not come. I wasn't nervous or really even excited... I guess just happy. So, Ashley, I pray that you are happy right now... and also resting. :) (and I've heard that you've been sick, so I pray you're TOTALLY HEALED by tomorrow!) I know where Craig is-- in the hot tub at my Uncle's house, 5 houses down. If my family hadn't been so wrapped up in a HILARIOUS game of "Outburst," I would likely have gone down to crash it... ok, just to say hi to Craig. I tutored him through high school English & Spanish, come on! And he returned the favor in college, and got me through Physics.... ok, so that still isn't enough to motivate me to crash a hot-tub full of boys. Actually, i don't know what WOULD...

God give you both health and clarity of mind tomorrow. Ashley, if you're reading this at any time tomorrow (I know, not likely), then please, make up your mind to NOT stress, and to ENJOY IT! Craig, same to you. :) And don't do anything stupid that might ruin the pictures.

I love "Nights Before," don't you? One of the reasons is because they are inevitably followed by "Days of;" I mean, you couldn't have one without the other. But part of their glory is the delicious (or torturous) knowledge that this night WILL end, and then something will change; it's the Last Night, and then tomorrow will be the First Night. We love security, as humans; we like to be comfortable, even boring. But we crave change, too, calling it progress, improvement, fun. On the Night Before, we're looking at both, smacking our lips on the sweetness of the last of the known, and already anticipating the new taste to come. It's like a kid alternating between finishing one doughnut and smelling another. Smiling at both. The Day Of may pass quickly, but the Nights Before hardly ever do. They are endless, for all intents & purposes, until you look back on them.

I think... hmmm... I think I want to live my life here as a "Night Before:" enjoying every bit of it, even the stuff I naturally, uh, don't enjoy... and all the while whetting my appetite for Heaven. What was it those more sophisticated than I called it? The already-and-the-not-yet?

That.

Because "Today is the Day of Salvation." Christ "for once saved those who are being saved." We're living in the Kingdom, and waiting for the Kingdom. We're groaning for redeption, and fully redeemed. We're longing for His presence, and enjoying it already. Like a Bride trying to sleep for the last night in her old bed...

Ok, so I was going to post a picture of Ash & I together, and wound up taking quite the pictoral stroll down Memory Lane. Here are a few for you to enjoy. :)

October 2002-- Ashley & I in front of Miabi's, Eastside's Homecoming (both freshly graduated from h/s)
Summer 2003- Craig, Me, & David Sapp, rock climbing in Kings Mt, NC. Attractive harnesses, don't you think? (that was back when Craig worked for Rocks & Ropes!)


June 2002-- Craig switching bathroom signs on our Mission Trip to Mezquital (he was supposed to do that...)
Ashley with her Daddy & Kristen Hatfield, same mission trip

Nov 2002- Ashley with me, right after I cut 18" off my hair (she was my moral support for that, and for the 2nd hole I had pierced in my ear for my 21st birthday... ahh, good times)

March 2005- Ashley talking with kids in the Acapulco Orphanage- a mission trip we took through Furman's RUF... hehehe I have lots of pictures of Ashley, it would seem...

September 2006- Triple-Play Date Night- Ryan & Lydia Donell had Craig & Ashley, and Ryan & I over for dinner & games. Ahhh, young love.

Can't wait to see that last dating couple be sealed!! :)
--Christina