Intertwined (another one from Beth)...

My friendship with Erika is a tale of good things coming out of bad things. It’s also a story of our lives being slightly intertwined since before actually meeting each other. I moved to Aurora on the heels of a broken engagement, not knowing a soul. Fast forward a few years, I was going to a great church, I was married, and had just had my first baby. Our first babysitter for Sara was a sweet teenage boy in the youth group we were leading, who turned out (I found out recently) to have had a crush on Erika back when they were in elementary and middle school respectively. Small world, right?

It gets better. I wrote a book about ten years ago and the book cover photo was taken in a local backyard. The backyard of a friend of Erika’s mom. Erika’s mom bought my book, just because of the cover being shot in her friend’s backyard, and gave it to Erika who was a new mom and living in Minnesota at the time. So, Erika read my book before knowing me in person.

Move ahead again, and Erika and her husband find themselves visiting the church I had been attending for about eight years by that point. I saw them the first time they visited, and fearing they were too cool for our congregation – and that therefore they would leave – I walked across the aisle, introduced myself, and then introduced them to the pastor, hoping to lock them in, so to speak. At that point, she didn’t know it was me, and I didn’t know she’d read my book.

A few weeks later, I invited her and her family over for dinner, and while eating, she told me that she had read my book already. I believe I said, “Wow…you know way more about me than I know about you…” and we laughed. She went on to tell me that she was signed up for one of my talks at the upcoming Hearts at Home convention.

We’ve gone on to live so much of life together in the past ten years. Jesus has intertwined our hearts in ways we never would have imagined had someone told us the day we met all that was ahead for us. I may have ended up here because of a broken heart but I am beyond grateful for Erika and ten years of knowing her and having her be one of the truest, most constant people in my life ever.

Now you can really come home, E…

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