“Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.”
~ G.K. Chesterton
I don’t know if dogs and cats dream of getting their first kisses, but one thing’s for sure, humans are different.
I remember wanting my first kiss so badly, I thought I was going to die waiting. I did not want to get to college and be the only girl on campus whose only kiss was her bathroom mirror.
Luckily, despite my mother’s best efforts and my propensity to like books and play in the orchestra (the cool kids were in band and track-and-field), I did get my first kiss before donning cap and gown.
The kiss was just as magical and dizzying as it appears in the movies.
But, it wasn’t true love.
Not for him, anyways.
It was a bummer. The box for My First Kiss was checked off the same year as Dumped For The First Time.
Missing The Boat
Some people talk about not kissing anyone until they’re engaged, to end up marrying the first person they kissed. Real fairy-tale like.
Too bad, I always thought.
Why didn’t God have the first guy I fall in love with be my husband?
It was the first of many why-questions I’d start filing secretly away.
Many years passed. I could never find the magic of that first kiss again.
After some time, I grew up and got smart. I stopped believing there was “The One”.
If I missed the boat with “The One”, then I’d rather just be by myself and God.
It’s just you and me, God.
I liked it just fine.
There was enough to keep me kingdom forward and connected with people. Eight years fly by when you can serve with abandon, lots of friends to make and enjoy.
Then, one day, I met him.
He Was Different
Unlike other Christians guys who always stayed behind the lines of just being “friends”, he was different.
He wrote me digital letters every day for a month. Then, he asked me out on a date. Not to grab a bite to eat. A date.
In line for a flick, we found out our #1 favorite food was pizza and we both loved coffee. We couldn’t stop talking and we were laughing even though there were no jokes being told.
I decided to put out the “No Kissing” edict. My last kiss was many annual moons ago. I didn’t want to kiss any more frogs.
Three months.
That’s how long we’d have to date exclusively before we could kiss.
He was smart. He smiled and nodded.
I didn’t make it past six weeks.
The kiss I received that day under a willow tree was the best kiss ever. It felt like my first kiss.
It didn’t bring me back to my kiss at seventeen.
It felt as if I had never been kissed.
… Until that moment with him.
Turn Back Time
If you’ve ever stopped believing that anything could be new again, God’s perfect timing can turn everything back to the first time.
The impossible happened that day we first kissed.
God became a lot more powerful than I imagined.
~ He works in mysterious ways we can’t explain.
~ He stirs and rearranges our hearts, when we’re not looking. When we don’t think anyone else is home, except us, He makes a space for love.
~ He is more capable than cupid, more magical than the most beautiful of fairy tales.
A Kiss To Your Soul
I’m old enough to understand that nothing lasts forever.
But, there are some things that happen only once, that remind us that there is eternity in our hearts.
The one I call my husband was him. He was brought into my life, even though I gave up looking for love.
God knows what you may have given up on.
The One who knows you can bring a kiss to your soul, like the one you’ve always longed for and forgotten about.
Mine came through a person, but remember, God is not limited by our ways.
Why didn’t God have the first guy I fall in love with be my husband?
… So that I could believe in miracles again.
~~~~~
So your God will rejoice over you.”
~ Isaiah 62:5
~~~~~
Do you need to believe in miracles again?
by Bonnie Gray, Faith Barista
Photo Courtesty of Photobucket.
ABOUT BONNIE GRAY
Bonnie Gray is the writer behind Faith Barista, serving up shots of faith for everyday life. She is fascinated with the challenge of keeping faith hot and...
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
WOW…great, just great! I know how you feel, I know my dream came true when I met and married my wife…that was a true miracle.
Blessings,
Jay
Wow – what a question to ponder first thing this morning…. I guess after my son died I realized that miracles don’t always happen, even when you pray with all your heart. So I believe in a great and loving God who can perform miracles, but who in His wisdom doesn’t always choose to. And for me the final miracle will be seeing Jesus face to face and seeing my son again someday.
What a romantic story, gifted to you by the Great Lover of All.
I love stories like yours that showcase God’s mysterious ways. Our God is full of surprises!
Beautiful post Bonnie! Loved this part, “The One who knows you can bring a kiss to your soul, like the one you’ve always longed for and forgotten about.” I want to live a life believing in miracles… every single day!
Thank you for this today!
Beautiful and inspiring. I thought I found my prince but things got really messed up and my prince has abandoned me. It’s nice to know that maybe I don’t have to give up my dream, maybe God can heal me and make my dream come true, it will just look a little differently then I thought.
Thank you for your beautiful love story. I’m a romantic and loved it.
Just when I’d given up on ever being married and decided (for real this time) that I was content with it just being me, the Lord and my son…..God sent my very first boyfriend back into my life. So..I already believe in miracles, but this was a GREAT story!
I dont know when I stopped but…stop I did. But its coming back to me…slowly but surely. I see them in my boys. I see it in the sky. The tree’s. The sunshine…endless proof. But mainly I see it in the love shared between others.
thank you for this…
What a beautiful analogy for what God can do! And I, too, got my first kiss at 17–except I thought it was gross! :) However, my first kiss from my husband was all the magic you described!
Beautiful post!
xoxo
Pat
Wow, great! Just great… this is a beautiful story. I need to believe in miracles again. =)
Bonnie. Bonnie. Bonnie. I have no words. This speaks deep. I started reading thinking I knew what was coming, and God picked it up and turned it around on me, as He always does when I read your writing.
Thank you. Thank you, thank you.
This post brought tears to my eyes. It was pretty much the perfect thing to read for where my heart is right now. Thank you SO much for sharing it.
Thank you for this post, Bonnie. It’s exactly the type of encouragement I need right now. I need to believe in miracles and know that God has a wonderful plan for me.
this is so what i needed to hear today! and what a beautiful story!
Debbie G. I’m so very sorry for your loss. I’ve lost one baby (miscarriage), and my dreams for a “normal” family (two of four daughters have developmental delays and mental illness). I think loss gives us the ability to appreciate the truly miraculous more than we’d ever even think to notice before…
Bonnie – love how you described your husband’s intentionality in getting to know you. My husband instantly set himself apart with that same trait – I tell him he was the first Christian MAN I had met, among lots of boys in the world…. Although he wasn’t my first kiss, I was his. That was so precious for me!
Thanks for your post!
-Laurie
http://livingpower.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/mylivingpower
And sometimes we have to give up so that He can give that kiss to our soul.
Sweet!
What a beautiful story! As for miracles…I’ve seen so many and some have passed and I only noticed their effects as they silently passed. He moves and is among us transforming our lives in so many ways as we invite Him to intercede. Thanks for this real life love story!
thak you so much for this. Please keep me and my small family of 2 in your prayers as we go through a very long year.
What a sweet post!!! I loved it :) So beautiful, and filled with so much tenderness and hope. Thanks for sharing!
Bonnie, what a lovely heartfelt post this was! I loved reading of your love story. I saw the comment your sweet hubby left on your blog post about Father’s Day. I knew that he certainly was a gem and I’m so glad the Lord brought you two together.
I’ve lived much longer than you and have more history in the kissing department from way back when. However, I’ve been married to my husband for 25 years now and have never kissed anyone else. And that’s the way I will keep it.
As for miracles, I’ve recently been praying the Scriptures. I’ve also been pleading God’s promises. And yes …I’m awaiting a miracle of faith for those I love.
Blessings and love,
Debbie
Does heart ache always go hand-in-hand with a miracle? Can you have one without the other?
Wonderful post with romantic analogies!
Blessings.
You hit me right between the eyes with your question. As we age and go through hard seasons, it’s easy to start believing things just aren’t possible. It creeps in without us realizing it.
Thanks for reminding me.
What a beautiful story, Bonnie. (sigh) All things new. That’s what He does. Ummhmm.
Loved this post – so timely with a certain movie coming out this week that gives us the lie once again that human love can satisfy us deep in our soul – the way that only Christ can.
The posting is incredibly marvelous. You analyse in your round.I will go on to interest your other marvelous posts. I like this form of post quite a great deal.
that was bEaUtIfUl! =) Made for the movies (but better)! thank you for sharing your inspirational true-life story! =) very inspiring…
Hi webmaster, commenters and everybody else !!! The blog was absolutely fantastic! Lots of great information and inspiration,
Bonnie, I the first girl I kissed after getting saved was kind of like this. I was terrified and overwhelmed and wanted to kiss her all at the same time. I had missed several opportunities to do it and had even written a post about it. I’m such a ridiculous man sometimes.
It was a big deal because I wasn’t a good guy at all before meeting Jesus and the sanctifying process He brought me through really did make things like kisses matter again.
Your story is wonderful, friend!
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