A new beginning to a new year for all... but an amazingly special new season for my beautiful sister Toni. She's been through more than her share of sorrows ... and yet through it all God has been reminding her that He is doing a new thing and given her hope to
persevere through the pain. He has promised to rebuild the ruins of her life-- making all things new and good. Little did she know how deep that promise would go.
Kris was her first. She was a junior, he was a senior-- quarterback of their high school football team. He was the guy who could have had any girl, but chose to be with her. She felt so special. It didn't matter than he was often a jerk, she knew he really "loved her" deep down inside. . . until she found herself pregnant, alone, scared. . .
After the abortion he never talked to her again. She did what a lot of girls do. . . moved on to the next. . . and the next. . . partied away her pain for a few years. . . hoped for love to somehow come from the giving of herself.
Then she found God. As He revealed the Truth of who He is, she was suddenly aware that His Love was all that mattered. She didn't need anyone else to fulfill her. Yet she still naturally longed for someone to share this new life with. As God began to heal her heart from the past-- from all of the decisions that led her down the path of destruction, she began to learn that forgiveness was something she didn't just need to receive, but extend... to all those guys who used her, lied to her, and took from her what she could never get back. She began speaking in schools on the subject of Relationships and Dating. She told girl after girl that they were worth more than they realize, and that it's possible to heal from things you thought would crush you. And in doing so, she found herself more and more healed from that which once crushed her.
Meanwhile, off in his own destructive life, Kris was running headlong into trouble. Drugs, the law, a prison term or two awaiting him. Little did he know that somewhere in the dark of his night, Toni was actually praying for him. After a miraculous turn of events he ended up being given an opportunity to spend a year and a half at Teen Challenge, rather than 11 years in prison. . . Little did he know that his life would never be the same! He started reading the Bible, and arguing with his professors as to why there's no way it could be true. Till one day, he suddenly couldn't deny any more that God was real. And that he had no reason to be anywhere other than jail, unless God had intervened. It was like a switch had been flipped.
Toni fell in love with a really great Christian guy at her church. He was so different from the guys in her past. He loved God too and wanted to work with the poor. She knew in her heart he was the One for her. He thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world. One problem... after a year or so of loving and respecting her, he just couldn't find the peace to commit to marrying her. What could be more devastating than that? Well, within a few months, he married someone else. After all she'd been through-- after all of the waiting, the healing, the painstaking intensity of trying to do the right thing-- it felt like God had let her down. Slapped her in the face. Played a cruel joke on her. Led her to the perfect guy for her, and then yanked him away. Was she just not lovable? Was she destined to always get the short end of the stick? Why would He allow this to happen to her again? To be rejected just like all the others had done to her...
But little did she know that Kris was looking for her. Trying to find a way to reconcile what he was never able to before he met Jesus. He had found the Forgiveness that changes everything-- and he knew that all would not be right until he found the one he'd crushed and let her know how deeply he regretted his treatment of her.
Toni kept finding Scripture about God making the old things new. She kept asking God what the heck that was supposed to mean, when everything that happened to her seemed to be the past repeating itself. I've never seen anyone hold onto hope the way she did. She wanted desperately to be married, to give life in place of the one she'd allowed to be taken, to serve God in ministry and have a family that walked in Truth. But instead she had to watch the one man she loved begin to do that with someone else. And yet, she chose to keep walking in the light of God's promises-- "I will never leave you nor forsake you." "You will mount up with wings like an eagle- you will run and not grow weary... you will walk and not grow faint." "I will give you beauty for ashes."
One day not too long ago she called me and said, 'you'll never guess who just sent me a friend request on
Facebook." The guy i talk about in the classroom all the time... the quarterback from high school... the one i had the abortion with.... and get this, i think he's a Christian now!"
"NO!"
"YES."
She accepted his friend request. He asked if he could call her sometime to catch up. She was weirded out but very curious. They talked. And talked. And talked some more. He told her his amazing story. She couldn't believe her ears. He couldn't believe she was actually still single! He asked if he could talk to her in person. . . there were some things he needed to say. She was nervous about seeing him, but knew it was probably the right thing to do.
He told her how sorry he was.... for everything. She told him she'd already forgiven him a few years ago. . . that she'd prayed for him. . . He asked when that might have been. . . She had it in her journal. It happened to be right around the time he should have been going to prison, but instead God set him Free. She cried. He cried. It was redemption that could never happen apart from a Good and Loving God!
And last night, at the stroke of midnight, with fireworks in the background, 10 years after she found out she was pregnant, two years after he should have been put behind bars, but was radically saved, and one year after her heart had been torn to pieces by the sovereignty of a Faithful God --- Kris asked Toni to be his lifelong love. To walk in the beauty of being NEW CREATIONS together. To get on her knees alongside him and worship the ONE who makes all things new. . . and all things beautiful . . . in His way.... in HIS time.
All of a sudden, every single second of her life made sense. Every moment of sorrow, both long ago and recently, was turned upside down, revealing the most beautiful tapestry of LOVE you could ever imagine. Suddenly her mourning and weeping had been turned to joy and dancing. Her ashes exchanged for beauty. And all things old had been made new.
. . . And she said "yes."
Happy
New Year, my sweet deserving sister. Your life is a book that others can't put down!
