My Shepherdess

This title makes a lot more sense if you were at River Stone Sunday night. We're studying Genesis and when Jacob first sees Rachel, he sees her with sheep - something he's totally in to. Driscoll says it's like finding a woman who owns her own bass boat. Sunday I added like a woman who bungee jumps or rides motorcycles or climbs rocks, etc. The point of all this is that I had one of those moments with my bride long before she was my bride. I fully intended to talk about it Sunday night, but brain cramped it out. So, here it is.

When I met Holly, she was (and still very much is) this beautiful, intelligent, clean cut, prim and proper, small town girl. I knew I was attracted to her, but I was still checking out to see what all we had in common to see if this was going anywhere. After all, she was from the town where not only does every guy drive an old piece of crap pick up truck, but most are (or were) decked out with certain features of a cow's anatomy hanging from the spare tire area (I'm not unpacking it if you're missing it). She seemed different from the rest of the town, but I was unsure.

I was a total wanabee Christian rocker (if there is such a thing). The "Jesus Freak" album from DC Talk was new, and I was a big fan. At the time I drove a 1985 K-5 GMC Jimmy with 32.5" tires. It was large and so was the sound system. The most expensive Sony CD player you could buy in 1996 that fed some big fancy amp that pushed two 15" Kickers. I liked my music loud, I liked to sing along, I liked to bob my head to the beat, I was a huge dork. However, I thought that I was bad. My friends at the time were not bold enough to confront my posing - maybe because they were too ... maybe. Anyway, on the way home from our first date which was not a real date b/c it was a set-up, I decided to conduct a little test to see how this small town goody goody would react to a little rock-n-roll. Up with the DC Talk. To my surprise she knew every word to my favorite songs. She sang - loud - and really good by the way (not a surprise to anyone who hears her belt it out every week at church). Not only that, but that every so carefully brushed hair was soon flying back and forth as she banged her head. She says this is the moment when I fell in love with her, and I'm not sure about that ... BUT ... it was the moment that I was confident that this relationship was going places.

It may sound pretty insignificant, but when I saw that, I connected with my shepherdess. Our first real date was a few weeks later. You guessed it ... DC Talk concert under the stars at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. It was as romantic as DC Talk music could be, and we had a great time. 7 months later we were engaged. A year and a half after that we were married. And to borrow from the romanticism of my forefather Jacob, I can honestly say that 10 years of working and doing life together seem like only a few days. I thank God for reminding me of this innocent time in our relationship where everything was new and I was more concerned with uncovering the mystery and godliness of this wonderful person than I was of my own selfish desires.

What God orderes he pays for, and He ordered me a prim and proper, clean cut, small town, rocker that was exactly what I needed to motivate me to become the man He created me to be.

That's all for now. Blessings to you.