God's Plan.

One of the coolest things is being able to see how things that were crazy, horrible, scary, or random at the time were used to shape God’s plan. Looking back I can pinpoint the different moments in our lives that brought Josh and I together.

We both grew up in the same small town and even attended the same high school, but managed to not meet each other until senior pictures. It turned out that we had several classes together and shared common interests so once the Fall semester got going we started spending more time together. We goofed off in gym, ate lunch together, and attended Friday night football games. Before I realized it, Josh was my best friend.

Which brings us to two defining events in our lives.

First being Josh’s accident. It was a Wednesday and I hadn’t seen Josh that morning so I just assumed he was late, but when he didn’t show up at lunch I was really disappointed. When I got out of school I sent him a message teasing him about faking sick and ditching me, to which came a shocking reply.

Josh’s mom responded telling me that he was in a severe car accident and had brain surgery and was in the ICU. I called her for the details and was completely shocked. Once he was allowed visitors I went out to see him and it was a crazy sight, not to mention horrible timing to meet his family for the first time.

In the weeks following the accident, I did my best to keep him up to date on school stuff and visited when I could once he was brought home. During that time, we talked almost nonstop. It was definitely a critical point for us and the horrifying accident strengthened our bond.

The next event occurred to me. After about a month had passed from Josh’s accident my family received a call while we were in church that had us leave mid-sermon. We drove out to pick up my friend so that her dad could go with her mom to the hospital. She had collapsed that morning and was already in route to get help.

I spent the day with my friend trying to keep her mind off of the tragedy that had happened in her home and the unease she felt about not knowing how her mom was.

That night was our youth group Christmas Party and since I drove the carpool people began arriving at my house. Before we left we all said a prayer for my friend’s mom who was going to be picked up to go to the hospital.

Josh was going to be my guest that night so once he arrived, I said good bye to my friend and left. The party went like it had in years before until we were all circled together. Our leader had received a call, my friend’s mom didn’t make it. I was devastated and cried into Josh’s shoulder almost non-stop.

The grief I experienced was unlike anything I had ever felt. For days I couldn’t eat and I would just walk out of class crying.

One night in particular, I couldn’t sleep. I was overcome with grief and I felt like I had given my friend false hope for her mom’s condition. It was more than I could handle, so I laid in bed crying and talking to Josh. It was so late that I finally told him he could get some sleep, but he insisted on staying up until he knew I fell asleep.

These two horrific events were complete tragedies that shook both Josh and I. However, looking back at them, they played an intricate part of our developing love story. God uses ugly things for His Glory. It truly is amazing.