𝑯𝒆 On a starlit night traveling desolate roads between state borders, my conscience was restless. What will I do about this… distant… object of admiration but yet is right in front of me? To ask or not to ask, that is the question… 𝑺𝒉𝒆 After many months of trial and struggle, God has finally established some comfort and ease within fellow partakers of Christ at my new home church. I yearn that God would bring me close and intimate friends to walk and share life with. 𝑶𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 Are you going out with anyone??? Yoooo broooo you GOTTA ask someone out before the end of your internship man!

𝑯𝒆 Alas, on this fateful day, the planets aligned and moon eclipsed. By God's grace and providence, this innocent duck had wandered from the protective sphere of its flock, distracted by the wholesome allure of a cute toddler alone on the playground. I the huntsman shouldered my rifle, loaded my mentally-practiced ammunition, steadied my breath, and shot my shot. "𝐻𝑒𝑦 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒, 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝐼 𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛? 𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝑚𝑦 𝑒𝑦𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡 […]" 𝑺𝒉𝒆 AHHH this must be a mistake… How did this happen? How did I not see this coming? I checked every corner, every height and depth and yet did not find this on my plan of record! How will this even work out??? 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑃𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝐷𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑘'𝑠 𝑒𝑥ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑢𝑛𝑔: 𝐼 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑛'𝑡 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑦 𝑎 𝑔𝑜𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒… 𝑯𝒆 Stunned I was – having prepared a response for every contingency – except for the case she accepted my feeble request. Despite my confident appearance initially, my legs were in desperate need to recover from their gelatinous state. “𝐶𝑜𝑜𝑙, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑎𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒” was all I could manage.

𝑺𝒉𝒆 ACT NORMAL, be chill. He's chill. We're all chill. We’re good friends. Just a chill hangout. Chill…? 🤓 𝑯𝒆 Despite a faithful friend's heartfelt caution that my subject speaks no greater than 7 words per response, I planned the riskiest, most committed event: a weeknight dinner date. But thankfully, we both showed up fashionably late to lighten the tone. […] 5 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 […] She was beautiful and gentle, she was everything which attracted me initially and more. An answer to prayer, and a praise to God. All I could do was give thanks to the Lord when my butt hit the seat of the car at the end of the night! 𝑺𝒉𝒆 Oh no oh no, what do I do… This was not in my timing and plans. He has interjected himself into my life without approval and made a jumble of my thoughts. But there’s a bigger problem – It actually went really well and now I like him a lot! But am I ready?

𝑺𝒉𝒆 After a sleepless night, I am determined to call him to convey my true feelings. 𝑯𝒆 I sat pensively in the office parking lot, awaiting this ominous call. “𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑝, 𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑥𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑙𝑦 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑤 𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑦” 𝑺𝒉𝒆 I blabbered incoherently, using almost exclusively incomplete sentences, all to summarize that… “𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝐼 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝒚𝒐𝒖… 𝐼 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑓 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝒎𝒆” 𝑯𝒆 Huh, so it wasn’t as bad as I thought… “𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒. 𝑀𝑎𝑦 𝐼 𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑑𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑟𝑑?” 𝑺𝒉𝒆 How dare he provide such a reasonable and level-headed response to my half-hearted attempt at semi-rejecting him??? 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝑠. 𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠, 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒’𝑠 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝐽𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛’𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑤 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑑𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑. 𝐴𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛 8-ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑣𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙, 𝐽𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝, 𝑡𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛, 𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑜𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑖𝑚 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑝𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑.

It wasn't until 6 months later where Jason invited Austin Yu (groomsman) and his then-girlfriend (now fiancée) to a "double date" with himself and Christine. Little did she know that this scenic and relaxing walk around Foothills Nature Reserve while catching up with close friends would turn into the surprise of her life! Shortly after reaching the top of the hill, Jason and Christine reclined on a bench seat, which he stubbornly refused to reposition from (the lighting from that angle was good for photos). After a short spiel declaring his love for her, Jason fumbled in his bag to produce a ring, and asked Christine to marry him! (She said yes, by the way)

Jason and Christine believe marriage is a gift from God. A gift is something that is good and pleasing to the recipient while it costed them nothing but the giver has paid everything. The greatest gift is that Jesus lived to die for the sins of this world and suffered a painful death penalty deserved by all of us sinners (Jason and Christine included). Earthly marriage is a beautiful (yet not full!) image of the love that Christ holds for His beloved children: those who put their trust in God to be their Saviour on the day of ultimate judgement, which everyone in their heart-of-hearts know they will face. As we celebrate together the beginning of our marriage, we hope you will ponder the heavy realities of our short time on earth. Put your hope not in your own goodness and achievements (we have all missed the mark) but instead trust on God's grace and mercy who has already been perfectly good on your behalf so that you can anticipate Him as your merciful Father; rather than the judge of your soul!