The Kiss

“Wait right here.” Caleb said, “And close your eyes.” He whispered in her ear. He walked away and Bethany stood there holding onto the fence that bordered the cute little lake. It was her 18^th birthday and Caleb had taken her out to this park for a birthday breakfast. After they were finished eating French croissants from the local French bakery he brought her over to stand by the fence next to the water. Caleb and Bethany had known each other for over a year at this point, up until now they had concentrated on building their friendship, waiting on God to show them the right time to proceed into a more romantic relationship. They both cared for each other greatly and had grown a deep friendship over the past year. Bethany had gone on a two month mission trip to Asia and they found that their friendship grew despite the distance. Bethany stood their with her heart beginning to beat faster and faster. Soon he returned and told her to open her eyes. He stood behind her and held in front of her eyes the most beautiful bouquet of Gerbera Daises, (her favorite flower) she had ever seen! “Aww! Thank you so much!” she said. “Happy birthday!” Caleb replied. As she held the flowers in her hands he turned her face up to look at his, “Bethany, will you be my girlfriend?” “Yes! Of course I will!” she answered. “Well, can I kiss you?” “Absolutely!” And they shared the most amazing first kiss in the world. They had waited and waited for this special moment and it was finally here. They had wanted to share this for so many months and the waiting definitely paid off! They just stood there kissing for a few minutes, the flowers forgotten. Caleb picked her up and started to carry her back to the pavilion so they could open her birthday presents. “Wait! My flowers!” She exclaimed, and they both laughed. They opened her birthday presents and then read Hebrews chapter 10 together. Then Caleb said, “I love you, Bethany!”. With tears in her eyes, she looked away and said, “I love you too!” This was the first time they had said those words to each other, although they had felt them for quite some time. Waiting for things is certainly difficult, but it makes them so much more precious and wonderful!

Valentine's Day!

Tomorrow is Valentin's Day! My favorite holiday! I've always loved V-Day. A few years ago I heard the history of the day. I love history and I love Valentine's day and so I fell in love with this story. I looked online for a good version of the story to share with you. This one was the most detailed. Enjoy!

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by the name of Valentine. While one was a priest in Rome, another was a bishop in Terni. Nothing is known about the third St. Valentine except that he met his end in Africa. Surprisingly, all three of them were said to have been martyred on 14th February.

It is clear that Pope Gelasius intended to honor the first of these three aforementioned men. Most scholars believe that this St. Valentine was a priest who lived around 270 AD in Rome and attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II who ruled during this time.

The story of St. Valentine has two different versions - the Protestant and the Catholic one. Both versions agree upon Saint Valentine being a bishop who held secret marriage ceremonies of soldiers in opposition to Claudius II who had prohibited marriage for young men and was executed by the latter. During the lifetime of Valentine, the golden era of Roman empire had almost come to an end. Lack of quality administrators led to frequent civil strife. Education declined, taxation increased and trade witnessed a very bad time. The Roman empire faced crisis from all sides, from the Gauls, Slavs, Huns, Turks and Mongolians from Northern Europe and Asia. The empire had grown too large to be shielded from external aggression and internal chaos with existing forces. Naturally, more and more capable men were required to to be recruited as soldiers and officers to protect the nation from takeover. When Claudius became the emperor, he felt that married men were more emotionally attached to their families, and thus, will not make good soldiers. He believed that marriage made the men weak. So he issued an edict forbidding marriage to assure quality soldiers.

The ban on marriage was a great shock for the Romans. But they dared not voice their protest against the mighty emperor. The kindly bishop Valentine also realized the injustice of the decree. He saw the trauma of young lovers who gave up all hopes of being united in marriage. He planned to counter the monarch's orders in secrecy. Whenever lovers thought of marrying, they went to Valentine who met them afterwards in a secret place, and joined them in the sacrament of matrimony. And thus he secretly performed many marriages for young lovers. But such things cannot remain hidden for long. It was only a matter of time before Claudius came to know of this "friend of lovers," and had him arrested.

While awaiting his sentence in prison, Valentine was approached by his jailor, Asterius. It was said that Valentine had some saintly abilities and one of them granted him the power to heal people. Asterius had a blind daughter and knowing of the miraculous powers of Valentine he requested the latter to restore the sight of his blind daughter. The Catholic legend has it that Valentine did this through the vehicle of his strong faith, a phenomenon refuted by the Protestant version which agrees otherwise with the Catholic one. Whatever the fact, it appears that Valentine in some way did succeed to help Asterius' blind daughter.

When Claudius II met Valentine, he was said to have been impressed by the dignity and conviction of the latter. However, Valentine refused to agree with the emperor regarding the ban on marriage. It is also said that the emperor tried to convert Valentine to the Roman gods but was unsuccessful in his efforts. Valentine refused to recognize Roman Gods and even attempted to convert the emperor, knowing the consequences fully. This angered Claudius II who gave the order of execution of Valentine.

Meanwhile, a deep friendship had been formed between Valentine and Asterius' daughter. It caused great grief to the young girl to hear of his friend's imminent death. It is said that just before his execution, Valentine asked for a pen and paper from his jailer, and signed a farewell message to her "From Your Valentine," a phrase that lived ever after. As per another legend, Valentine fell in love with the daughter of his jailer during his imprisonment. However, this legend is not given much importance by historians. The most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not centered on Eros (passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion. Valentine is believed to have been executed on February 14, 270 AD.

Interesting, huh? I love this story. So remember that Valentine's Day is really not all about lovey-dovey cupids shooting arrows tipped with pink and red hearts. It's a time when we can celebrate love, marriage and the God of both of these things. That is why I love Valentine's Day!

The Meeting.

“I'm here!” Read the text message. Bethany smiled as she read the text. This would be the first time she and Caleb had seen each other since they first met three months before while her youth group was working at Inner City Mission for a weekend. Caleb had been working at the Mission that weekend and they had taken an interest in each other. On the last day her youth group was there, as everyone was saying 'goodbye' and walking out the door, Bethany had walked out the door next to her brother and Caleb yelled out the door, “Find me on Facebook!” Bethany didn't know whether he was talking to her or her brother and so they both turned around at the same time and said simultaneously, “OK!”. During the next three months Caleb and Bethany had talked over Facebook, sending messages to each other talking about all sorts of subjects. They had become great friends. In recent weeks they had started sending text messages to each other. They both knew that they liked each other but they also knew that they wanted to wait and concentrate on being friends before anything else would happen. So after three months of talking, Bethany found out that her family was planning on going to Greenville to a choir concert. Caleb's sister sang in the choir and so Bethany invited Caleb to come. Her family arrived there and got their seats. “I'm here!” as Bethany read the text she smiled and couldn't wait to actually see him! She wouldn't say anything for many months but she had already come to value his friendship greatly and she strongly felt that one day they would marry, and although she didn't know it at the time, Caleb felt the same way. Bethany saw him enter the back of the building. He walked to the pew she was sitting in and greeted her brother and the rest of her family, then he sat down next to her and said, “Hi!”. “Hi!” Bethany replied. “How are you?” he asked. When she looked into his lovely brown eyes, the look in his eyes was one of warmth, love and sincerity. She could tell he cared about her, and that he really genuinely wanted to know how she was doing! Our eyes can tell so much to the people we are speaking to, it is a beautiful feeling to be truly cared for and loved. Lets have love in our eyes when we look at the loved ones in our lives.

Caleb+Bethany

Well, I was thinking last night about Caleb and I. I was in a writing mood and so I wrote a cute little story about when he came to see me in Poitiers. That got me to thinking, we have a lot more cute stories to tell! So that's what sparked the idea for this blog. This will be a place for me to show off our cute pictures, to write sweet stories to make you go, "Awww!!!" and a place for me to share thoughts about love. I hope you enjoy reading this blog, I hope this brightens your day and I hope it makes you smile!

The Reunion

“The train is how many minutes late?” Asked an old French woman. “50 minutes.” Bethany replied. “Oh lala!” The woman remarked. “I know!” Bethany said sarcastically. They continued to converse about possible reasons why the train would be so late, Bethany didn't care a wit why the train was late, she just hoped it would arrive! This late train was no ordinary late train, this late train carried with it the love of her life that she hadn't seen for three months. Caleb was coming on the train to spend Christmas with her, (and eventually to propose to her!). Bethany and Caleb had been thousands of miles apart from each other for three months. Finally in the distance she saw what looked like the headlights of an approaching train. She walked down the steps onto the platform and waited for the slow moving train. It seemed like the train was moving at a good five miles per hour! The first class cars were up the platform a bit so she had to walk quite a ways down the platform. The train finally stopped and people started pouring out of it. Bethany wasn't quite to the first class cars yet and so she started walking faster and faster, cutting through the crowd of people like a fish trying to swim against the current. She saw that she arrived at the first class cars and she started searching the crowd for his face. Caleb saw her before she saw him and a smile immediately overtook his face. After a long and tiring trip he finally saw a friendly face, (and someone who spoke English!). They were about ten yards apart when she caught a glimpse of his face. She started running in his direction through the crowd of people and leaped into his outstretched arms! His warm, familiar embrace engulfed her and her eyes filled as tears of joy and contentment ran down her cheeks. “He's really here!” She thought. With his tender strength he held her in his arms and she hugged his neck. They remained in the embrace not even saying a word to each other. He put her down and they kissed. What is it about kisses? If you really think about them they are a bit strange. But strangely wonderful all the same. For some reason this kiss was so sweet and lovely that it blew all of the others away. Maybe it was because they had been apart for months, as they say, absence does make the heart grow fonder. Is the saying true, “Journeys end in lovers meeting”? No. Journeys begin in lovers meeting!