It occurred to me not that long ago: almost no one knows my whole life story. It could be argued that my parents know my life story, they’ve been there all along, from the day I was born until today. If anyone comes close, it would be my parents, but even they don’t know everything. In fact, no one does. Nor do I know every detail of someone else’s life.
Think about it: do you know your best friend’s life story? Do you know every thing about him or her? All the reasons they’ve ever cried, smiled, laughed, or danced? Do you know how many people they have truly loved? Do you know their hardest hurts or their greatest joys? Have you shared them all with your best friend, or did you jump in somewhere in the middle of their life story?
The same is true with our significant others: we jump in somewhere in the middle. Chances are very slim we were there on the day they were born. It isn’t likely that we were there for their first heartbreak, their graduation, or even the day their faith became the realest thing in their life. As Boyce Avenue sings, we may have been (and are) on our way to them, but we weren’t there yet. What happens when we arrive, but find ourselves in the middle of the story?
I often (it is no secret) wonder about my future husband. What happens when I meet him and he is in the middle of his life story? I won’t know all of his story, all of the things that bother him, or all of the ways he most desires to be shown love and affection. I won’t know about all the girls before me who have broken his heart. I won’t know the love he’s known. His life will have existed before I came along, and it will be my task to study his heart and to learn everything I can about him. God will ask me to jump in in the middle of his story and move towards heaven with him. Equally as true, it will be his task to jump in in the middle of my life, learn about me, and move towards heaven with me.
When it comes to life we don’t get an instruction manual, and even if we could read about every single moment of another person’s life, we wouldn’t know how those events made them feel or how those events shaped the person we know them as today (or will know them as in the future). I suppose not knowing a person completely, not knowing their whole life story, could lead to despair and a lot of “what if’s”. What if I say something and drive them away without knowing why? What if I open up and get rejected? But instead of the fear, instead of the despair and the endless list of “what if’s” we turn to the One who has been there all along. God, the maker of our hearts, has been there from the very beginning, from the day we were conceived until the day today. He not only knows each and every event that has happened to us, but how each of those events have shaped us. He knows the hurts we’ve seen and the joys we’ve experienced. In time (His perfect time, mind you) He’ll share those things with the person who needs to know them. By knowing His heart, by staying close to His heart, we also trust our hearts to Him. When we trust our heart to Him, we believe that when it is time, He’ll teach our future spouse everything they need to know in order to love us as He wants us to be loved.
We may not know the whole story, but He does, and He isn’t finished writing it yet. Not by a long shot. Jump in in the middle, take a dive and trust that He sees, knows and loves your heart, and that even if someone doesn’t know your whole story, He’ll share with them all they need to know to love you as He does.
