Reunited.

This past Sunday, I got an early Christmas gift in the form of  my dear friend, Kate. We met at Denver Seminary and quickly made the connection that she was born in my hometown and we had a mutual friend, Lauren Colarusso. It was a sweet surprise when I got a text Sunday morning saying she was in town and wondering if I'd have time to meet up later. Did I? Not even a question.

Our meeting marked my first reunion with a Denver friend. The last time I saw Kate was after  a week of packing, tearful goodbyes, emotions spilling out all over the place, knowing I needed to leave, but staring into an unknown future (and one last hike before resettling on the flatlands of Ohio.) Parting ways on an uncommonly cloudy Colorado day with my close girlfriends after one 'last supper' in downtown Littleton was a tear-filled, heart-wrenching affair.

But the waiting to see one of these faces again was so worth it. How incredible it was to recount the past seven months with Kate. Seminary, especially the counseling program, is a unique place. It has this effect on all who choose to experience it fully. It kind of wrecks you. Exposes all of your crap. Makes you deal with it, even the stuff you thought was resolved a long time ago. Forces you to live in true community because you have no other choice than to be needy and broken with others. All this toward the end that you would learn to be yourself before the Lord and walk with Him more intimately in order to be a true lover of people. But it hurts like hell. 

Kate and I, we've walked through this together. This process of having God smash your heart into smitherines with a hammer and then wondering if you'll ever be a functioning human being again. (You won't, not in the way you thought.) Seeing Kate brought a piece of  Denver back and made the whole experience real again, but also reminded me that since then, God has made good on His promises to heal and restore. Beauty from ashes. Mourning to dancing. Death to life. Sunday, our hearts celebrated the Lord's faithfulness, His answers to prayer, His perfect timing, the wonder of His ways that are so much higher than ours. 

My heart cannot stop smiling.