When God Writes your Love Story

One of my favorite questions that I love to answer is “How did you and Rob meet?” Let me tell you that story.

Let’s go back to October 2004. I had just graduated from high school that summer, and was enjoying my first official semester as a college freshman at the University of North Texas. I was living the good dorm life, pledging a sorority, working a part-time gig, and enjoying being a comfortable distance from home. Earlier that year I had started an online blog (much like this one, though far less witty and with very few pictures; it was 2004 after all and my cell phone could literally only make phone calls). So I had my blog that I used mainly as a fun thing to do with my close group of friends. We would write and comment on each other’s posts and keep up with one another that way now that we were spread out at different schools. I developed an early love of writing and used this online journal to post poetry and general musings I had about life. Deep stuff people!

One day (October 21st to be exact), I got a random comment on a blog post I had recently published.

“Who is that?!” I wondered. I had never had a stranger read my blog before. I quickly clicked on this person’s blog profile and began scrolling through recent entries they had made. From what I gathered, it was a guy around my age named Robert, and from what I could tell after about 15 minutes of reading, not a total weirdo. We had similar interests (music, food) and were both attending college. “Hmph! I’ll say something back to him.”

So I did. I sent him an IM and introduced myself as not a total weirdo from the blog he left a comment on. And we became friends instantly, and haven’t stopped since. We’ve covered A LOT of ground to get where we are today, but it all began in front of a computer screen. I joke and tell people that Rob and I met online before it was considered normal, or even safe!

Even after more than 10 years, I cannot get over how thin of a margin this entire encounter was. That my entire life as I know it was a whisp away from being something completely different. At the time, Rob was also living the dorm life 800 miles away in Auburn, AL. He was a brand new freshman just like me, living the same comfortable distance from home. He too had a livejournal he had started earlier that year, and simply found himself bored one afternoon, clicking a “random generator” feature button on the site and reading through stranger’s posts for entertainment. But he paused long enough to leave a comment on mine and in that moment, God fulfilled a prayer I had been reciting for a long time.

I love telling this story because it gives me a chance to speak openly of God’s faithfullness. In the years before Rob and I were put together, I had been in a relationship with someone I wasn’t made for. And deep down I knew that, but it’s hard to want to walk away from something when it’s not entirely a bad thing. But I prayed for something greater and believed in something greater. And I was so convicted that God had the desire’s of my heart in mind that I decided to make a list. I listed out on paper all of the qualities I wanted my future husband to have. And I was specific; I still have this list. I still look back in awe of what God had in mind for me.

I love our story because it’s really not about us at all; it’s a story about a loving Heavenly Father. I’ve learned countless lessons from meeting Rob, but more than anything I’ve learned what conviction feels like. I’ve learned to trust my faith. I’ve grown to see (to actually see!) how works laid in the past flourish into a bigger plan, a better plan.

Thank you, VR4Rob, for that comment. Thank you a million times over.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

                                                      i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

-ee cummings