Love's first sparks

I remember the first time I had my heart broken.

I was about 16 and had a mad crush on a boy named Dyric.

The crush was totally unreciprocated, but he was in my circle of friends so we were in each other's company alot.

I remember being encouraged by my friends and a little misled by his close friends to ask him to the valentine's banquet at school.

Everyone told me that he would say yes and would go with me as friends if I would just ask him.

So, I did and was totally heartbroken when he said no.

I shook it off though because his reason was that he wanted to go with his basketball buddies who had all vowed to sit at the same table together without dates.

But, on the night of the banquet, he showed up with Missy, a cute Senior who was definitely not a basketball buddy.

Months went by and Missy didn't last long, but my crush remained.

The whole school knew that I liked him and that's why I got lots of sad looks and unexpected hugs on the morning that the news broke about Dyric's family moving away.

On the day of his move, a good friend of ours brought Dyric by my house to say goodbye.

Even though Dyric didn't like me "that way", he was still a good friend and we'd miss each other's friendship.

My mom gave Dyric a some sweet tea in a blue tupperware cup while we sat in the living room talking about old times and how much we'd miss being able to hang out.

I cried as they drove off and my mom comforted me as best as she could.

The cup that held his tea became my cup from then on until it cracked in the dishwasher about 6 months later.

I had it bad.

Now looking back, I'm thankful for that first heart break because I've got the story to tell.

I'm thankful that I have the memory to draw on of that silly crush so that I can bring it up when one of my kids feels that same kind of hurt.

I'm glad that Dyric didn't like me "that way" because years later I found my true love....and he does likes me "that way" far better than anyone else ever could.

I brought this story up just recently when comforting Zach.

He met Sierra quickly after we moved here and the two of them became close pretty quick.

She's his "type" and likes all the same things he does.

She plays fantasy football and can intelligently hold a conversation with him about sports.

They like the same music, movies and foods.

She's a smart girl with a good head on her shoulders.

Her father is in the National Guard and is in Iraq right now, so she "gets" being a military kid and understands Zach.

She's the president of her class and an A student.

And she likes my Zach.

And he likes her.

But, Sunday morning she moved to Vancouver, WA about 4 hours from here.

For weeks, Zach knew this was coming, and I watched him get sadder and sadder.

My adult mind wants to tell him that knowing someone for just two months is not enough time for it to rock your world when they move, but who am I to judge his heart.

If he's hurting, he's hurting.

They asked me to do a photoshoot for them before she moved.

Here are some photos from that shoot.

Don't these photos remind you of love's first spark in your life,

when holding hands with that special someone sent the butterflies tumbling in your stomach,

when you could listen to "your song" over and over again.

When you could talk on the phone until 2 am and fall asleep wearing his jacket.

Isn't love great?

So intense, stomach twisting, and pure in it's beginning, and then long suffering, self sacrificing and life sustaining in it's maturity.

It starts with an optimism and promise as bright as the sun, so that when the dark days come, light can be borrowed from it's core.

Love in our lives is a gift from God intended to let us see a glimpse of Him and his passionate perfect love for us.

If we as humans can love each other so deeply

can you imagine how deep God's love for us is?