Fiancée & baby

What is this?  Everywhere I keep hearing about fiancées.  I finished an episode of Undercover Boss where the employee explained about his fiancée and new baby.  Then I talked with a college student who told about his fiancée being pregnant.  And along the way, day to day, it seems I’m within ever-increasing earshot of couples who are pregnant while planning their dream wedding.  And the emphasis on “dream wedding” catches my ear.  The word fiancée implies intent to marry, which can seem a happy occasion.  But something’s missing.  Used to be that people lived together, unmarried, but without mention of planning a wedding because they didn’t desire to marry.  Today I’m realizing more people seeming interested in marriage, at least to the point of saying fiancée instead of girlfriend, yet why do they wait?  Is it all the TV design shows that make weddings look so elaborate?  Have we been convinced it's worth postponing just to gain a higher price tag?  I’m curious.  While 1 Corinthians 6 talks about sexual immorality, and chapter 7 talks about marriage, verse 6:20 bridges the two, saying “Therefore honor God with your body.”  And so therein rests our real purity of purpose.  For whatever reason we’ve misprioritized the fancy frills of a wedding, it's not too late to re-start.  The Lord offers us a clean slate and a new beginning.  And how I love Him for His ready forgiveness.

Theatre license with a twist

Gasp!  Aahhhhh!  Only 2 driver’s licenses in my hand!  I left the car with 3, and what happened?  I retraced my steps down the hall, out the school and onto the sidewalk, across the parking lot and back to the car.  No license in the front seat where I’d been sitting.  Not in my purse.  Not anywhere.  Until my coworker exclaims, “Here it is!”  And slowing in near disbelief, I question, “In the backseat?!  How did it get there?”  My coworker adds, “I never saw it drop back here!”  It was by her feet on the floor on the passenger side.  And what really happened?  I still don’t know.  But each time I rethink this scenario, I ponder a larger picture.  Returning to the moment I realized my license missing, I remember inquiring of people along the way.  In the school office, I left a message, and one worker said she’d notify Maintenance, just in case they found something.  At the table of PTA ladies in the hallway, I stopped to ask if anyone turned in a stray license.  Afterward while still searching outside, I had one of the ladies so kindly approach me, “Did you ever find your license?”  I replied, “No.  I’m still looking.  I’m asking the Lord to show it to me.”  And after she left campus to go home, I kept wondering if this lady was going to have something come up lost in her future.  Could the Lord be speaking into her by illustrating with my scenario?  Was He preparing her to seek Him later for her loss?  Initially my panic over the license conjured nightmares of identity theft.  Waiting in line to replace my license would be such a hassle.  But that's all selfish on my part.  Sure, it’s possible the Lord mysteriously let my license land in the backseat, all for greater purpose beyond me. Sometimes we don’t see mysteries solve out because the greater purpose isn’t in our realm.  Yet even for the narrower view here, I love that the Lord came to my rescue.  This is one of many theatre trips with an interesting twist.  Luke 19:10 reads with broader meaning now, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”