I am my beloved's

March 19, 2023. She was enjoying a quiet day on call. He took a complex Colorectal patient to the OR. He called her to ZBOR 315. She helped. But the story really began over a decade earlier, when Jeremy became friends with the Halles at a Bible study while in medical school. Much later, Emily and Haniee became friends at church. It came to be that Haniee would often say, “Marriage isn’t for me, unless the Lord were to plop someone down in the Halles’ kitchen” May 2, 2023. The Halles invited Haniee and Jeremy over for dinner. He plopped at the kitchen counter, watching her talk theology with Jake. He was intrigued. She wasn’t impressed. June 11, 2023. They had brunch at the Food Market after church. He brought her a belated birthday gift. He kept asking her out. To dinner, on hikes, to his family’s cabin, to weddings. She said yes to some things. Aug 31, 2023. In Doha, en route to a wedding in Zanzibar, she finally agreed to be his girlfriend. But the real story began before the beginning of time. When the Father had in mind to bring together two sinners, to sanctify them as they never could be otherwise. To kill pride, to learn patience, to repent, to forgive…to love. Jeremy is not the man she met in that OR. Haniee is not the woman he observed in the Halles’ kitchen. They’ve hurt each other, forgiven each other, hurt each other again and forgiven again, over and over. And in the process their understanding of Christ's relentless love for His people, in spite of their obstinate rebellion, has grown. They each learned to love the other in spite of the other's sin and unloveliness. November 1, 2024. He took her to the Food Market, where they had their first date. Then he trespassed into a park after dark. He had written her a poem of proposal. He got down on his knee. This is not "happily ever after". That won’t happen until that Glorious Day when we will be made perfect, as we behold Christ perfectly. This is just another step forward- now together- to encourage each other to look to the things above, to grow into the likeness of Christ, so that she can be the woman and he can be the man that the loving Father, matchmaker, and perfecter of our faith has created them to be. “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine…” Song of Solomon 6:3