Story of Glory

"I never thought I'd make it here today." -Summer Wheatly, 

(from her Student Body Presidential campaign speech, Napoleon Dynamite.)

Let me tell you how I got to where I am today.

I drove here.

The date was May 2, 2012.  

After the trauma of 2010 and 2011, The Lord apparently saw me as not a complete failure after all.  I had determined that I was never going to get married again.  Ever, ever.  Unless I knew for sure that God had brought me the husband that He wanted for me.  

     March 17, 2012 (ish) I felt compelled to talk to someone I had known 13 years prior.  His name is Sam.  He had tried to say "hi" to me a handful of times since then.  I had only halfway noticed.  I only know this now because he has since told me.  

I don't always answer the clue phone on the first ring, if you know what I'm saying.  You know, the clue phone.  Like "Clue phone, it's for you!" Except by "You," I really and always and only ever mean "Me." 

     So I casually asked this person, 

"Hey, Sam, how's your life? Like, what's happening and stuff?"

-As you can probably tell, I'm paraphrasing here. From that moment, we talked without ceasing for 6 weeks....

     ...in which time, we only saw each other face to face twice, in which time we knew that we were supposed to get married, even though we lived hours away from each other, and how was that even going to work, in which time I quit the job I had been working for almost 2 years, but had recently felt restless, but I didn't know what the restlessness meant, until the Lord told me, in which time we found an apartment in which to live, in which time I told my four children "Hey look guys, I know you haven't met Sam yet, but here's the clencher: We are going to get MARRIED and VERY SOON!"  in which time my ex husband agreed to let me move out of the city in which I was currently living.

In short, The Lord showed us exactly how that was even going to work.

"Sam is your home now.  Move to Redding, marry him, and be happy."

-Said the Lord, to me, very clearly, the day before Easter, 2012.  

This is not a paraphrase.  Those were His exact words to me.

And so I would like to take this story telling detour to interject that folks, if your first husband has left you, and you have four children, it is probably not very wise to surprise them with the knowledge of a new step father who is about to enter their lives, though they have spent less than .01% of their lives in this man's company.  Unless it is that .01% time when the LORD indeed has told you to do just that. In which case, it will be the only perfect thing to do.

BUT ONLY if...

(you know where I'm going with this, so I'll just stop with this circular logic and over use of the word "only" right now.)

Ahem.

Some may ask, "Michelle, why would you move away from the city where your four children were living with their father?" 

The simple answer (The only answer) is that The Lord told me to. 

Beyond that, I was stuck in my job, yet unable to afford to live in the city on my own, let alone be able to care of the needs of the children.  The past year, I had been living with my parents and they had told me it was time to scoot on out of there.  So it was looking like a cardboard box on the corner of the sidewalk for me. 

I'm sure I have friends who would have let me sleep on their couches, but still.

     I also was aware that if I moved away, whenever I came back down to San Jose to spend time with my children, I would actually be able to spend that whole time actually with my children.  While living in San Jose, because I had to work all the time, I had virtually no time with my kids.  I was always going off to work. 

 Hi ho, hi ho, it's slave to work I go.

     And so it was with this peace and assurance from the Lord, after much prayer, and many details falling into place, that on May 2, 2012, I drove from San Jose, CA to Redding, CA in my white Lincoln Towncar which was loaded with my few remaining worldly possessions.  I had few remaining worldly possessions, namely clothing, make up, several pairs of shoes, a laptop.  Oh and lets not forget an old white down comforter that was impossible to clean because it would not fit inside any washing machine.  

     At one time, I had had a family, a green minivan, a house, in which there was full house furniture and various (some) decorations.  The cupboards were stocked with dishes, towels, more pots and pans than anyone ever actually uses. 

Cans of various types of beans and corn.

A front loading washer and dryer with handles that opened up to each other for easier transferring of laundry from washer to dryer.

 And now here I was, reduced.

     On May 2, 2012, I drove with my face forward and the sun shone brightly on my car.  The night before, Sam and I had prayed over the phone.  I had asked Sam to pray I would get a good, deep sleep.  I did.  But I was woken up at 12:34am.  And I heard the Lord say to me,

 "Well done, good and faithful servant.  You have been faithful with a little.  Now I am giving you a lot."  

This made me cry, because I did not know that the Lord was proud of me.  Or that I had been "faithful with a little," because as previously stated,  at one time I had been the owner of "things," and now here I was, reduced.

I hadn't even been able to keep my children with me.*

     I was again woken up at 2:28 am, which is significant because my birthday is 2/28.  I very clearly heard the Lord say to me, 

"I make new things."  

     Throughout the night, I kept hearing Him say this.  

"I make new things." 

 "I make new things." 

"I make new things."

     As I drove to the city I had only ever visited one time, I felt strongly that there were HUGE angels along the sides of my car, hurrying me along, ushering me up to my new hometown.  I could not see them with my physical eyes, but in my mind's eye, they were clear.  I also had a sense of the LORD, seated on the throne in Heaven, his throne filling the entire sky before me as I drove, and I could not see all of Him, but just maybe the bottom of His throne.

It was bigger than you'd even think it was, 

and you're probably thinking it was pretty big. 

So what I'm saying is, EVEN BIGGER THAN THAT.

     The next day, Sam and I drove to Reno to elope.  As we drove from Redding to Reno, I had that same sensation of knowing that there were angels along the sides, behind, above, below, and in front of our car, ushering us to our wedding, and the LORD, on His throne in Heaven, was filling the entire sky before us, so HUGE was He.  There was no other audience for our wedding, but Jesus our Savior and Lord was our only audience, giving His approval, and hurrying us along.  Yes, hurrying us.  

     After the 1 minute wedding,

 (Judge: Do you want the long version or the short version?  

Us: What's the difference?

Judge:The long version just has a few more words in it. 

Us: Ok we'll go with that one.)  

in which a judge pronounced us Husband and Wife according to the state of Nevada, with one stranger witness witnessing, Sam and I had a glow about us.  Yes, we did.  I can't explain that but I just know that we were normal people before the wedding, and after it, once we were officially married, we glowed.  For a few hours, I think, as we scoured the local antique shops for wedding rings to wear, so as to actually look like married people, and not just people standing next to each other, and then as we ate our first meal together in an out of the way cafe we found which happened to have delicious red velvet cake, we carried that glow around with us; we wore it.  Or it wore us.  However that works when the glory of God invades your veins and rests upon your future.

     This story is true and complete, world without end, amen.

     "Glory, come down,

sent from your holy place.

Come cleanse us now

Sovereign and Holy, Come make us holy now.

Straight from your Holy Place,

Lord make us Holy,

As You are holy,

Lord send it down

Just a little bit of Heaven here on earth,

Lord send your glory.

Lord we need you,

Lord I love you, 

Thank you Jesus.

(from the song "Glory Come Down," by Sara Groves)

P.S. I forgot to mention this one detail.  My husband is pretty cute.  So there's that, too.

AND He'd been in love with me from the first time we met 13 years before, and I had no idea, so he was especially shocked that it was ME of all people, reaching out to talk to HIM, of all people, soooooo....there's that, too.

Like I said,  CLUE PHONE RINGING.

-XOXO,

*This post will make a lot more sense if you have first read the story contained in my post entitled "We carry our sorrows and wear grief like a coat of arms," dated 9/11/14, which was very hard for me to write, but which I felt I was supposed to write.  Because the Lord told me to.

AND ALSO, IF you only have one audience member to your wedding, make sure it is the Lord Jesus Christ.  
And now here, after several fake outs, you have reached the actual end of this post.