"I have found the one whom my soul loves"

To talk about a perfect story, one must recognize and give credit to a perfect Author. We honor the perfect Author of our story, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who from the beginning was delicately and sovereignly writing every detail of our story. In Romans 8:28, it says the following: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose," and in this, we place our faith, apprehending, and proclaiming the name of Jesus, the Author of life. John 13:1 "Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end." John makes a clear description of the love of Christ, remarking that Jesus loved His own until the end, which in Greek means "to perfection" / "to be complete." Jesus loves us with perfect love, eternal and redeeming love, a love that "exceeds all knowledge." In context, this record looks at Jesus devoting Himself to His own disciples, facing the cross, and understanding that His hour had come...not even the arrival of His own death could separate the disciples from His love. Romans 8:35-39 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.' Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The love of Christ is full of attributes and virtues that we can't even comprehend due to its greatness, but we can understand that as we go through every phase of life, we'll be kept by it. Following John's account, the most beautiful lesson in which the Lord would give us an example of how we ought to love one another, which has fueled and driven us onto making this beautiful decision. John 13:3-5 "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.” It is important to meditate on the way in which the Lord Jesus came to serve us, and it's crucial that we don't neglect His love, blinded by pride and self-righteousness, when in essence we are in desperate need for Jesus. The Lord Jesus dressed Himself as a servant, knelt before each of them, and washed their dusty feet, and they were left surprised, ashamed, and chastened, as they watched in painful, uncomfortable silence the Lord's actions. Additionally, the Lord taught us the lesson of selfless service and sacrifice that ought to be a model of our humility, which He supremely exemplified by His death on the cross, taking our place, disregarding our faults, disregarding our inefficacy. He loved us, showing perfect love. Our lives are devoted to serving the Lord, and they are devoted to serving and following His Word. We desire to follow the Lord’s will in our lives, confident that His ways are perfect.

Promptly, our story began a night of July 3, 2023, in which we exchanged two verses: Daniel: Proverbs 3:15 "She is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her." Sara: Songs of Solomon 1:16 "Behold, you are handsome, my beloved!" Without expecting it, the Lord presented us with the start of a beautiful friendship, in which we would encourage each other to grow closer to Christ in many ways, and the Lord would begin to prepare us for putting our words into actions and begin the most beautiful journey of our lives. As our friendship grew, we cherished and nourished each other, through time keeping one another in prayer and delighting in fellowship. The Lord opened the opportunity for us to have our flawless encounter. On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with our families. Daniel was making carne asada, and Sara made tamales, buñuelos, and chocolate caliente, and as we enjoyed our night with our families, the Lord opened our hearts to wanting to serve one another, and an act of kindness was placed onto Sara's heart by wanting to serve, by sharing the dishes which she had made for her family for Christmas dinner. December 25, 2023 Christmas Day had arrived. To a vast majority of people, this day is focused on what we receive, however, as believers, we set our minds on what we give, understanding that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and that day we both placed our hearts on serving one another. We met outside of Sara's house, where we exchanged a few gifts for each other. Daniel brought an unwithering blue Lego flower and a poetry book, and Sara presented Daniel with a bag of delicious tamales wrapped in the form of a gift, and a bag with tasty buñuelos, and Chocolate Abuelita, to keep him warm. Our encounter was love at first sight; however, it went much deeper than just what we saw. We also felt a fervent desire to serve one another, by showing love towards each other from the very first moment, by putting our words into action, and with that, the Lord in His perfect will would gift us a beautiful treasure. A beautiful treasure in which the Lord would allow us to cultivate and cherish His love, and the love that we had for one another, through a course of five months, in which we would share time together going skating, mini-golfing, go-karting, arcades, movies, art museums, amusement parks, eating new foods—all exciting and fun, but we also found ourselves enjoying walks in the park, drawing together, picnicking, but most importantly studying God's Word. During this time, we also encouraged one another to keep on reaching our goals, and we set goals for ourselves to meet, which allowed us to keep on serving one another with love and kindness, which would only be further confirmation on the Lord’s will for our lives. On June 19, 2024, we decided to start dating, with the sole purpose of getting married when the Lord allowed it. Through a lot of patience, faith, and love, the Lord has set a date to our special day. By His grace and mercy, we will be getting married on May 24, 2025. To some, marriage can be seen as a culmination of a story, but to us, it is just the beginning, and our prayer is that the Lord would reflect through our lives, and through our marriage, reflecting the love and beautiful blessing that this journey has been to both our lives, trusting that our story has been written out completely by a flawless Author. Finally, we invite you to come and be part of His beautiful story...