On our drive home from the evening church service, I told my mom about the new Marine at church that day.
"Yes, I saw him too. What is his name? You know, I think I know who he is."
"His name is John. Do we know him?" I was puzzled.
"Yes, it's him. Remember the 'young Marine guy'-the one Dad met a few years ago?"
It clicked. "Yes!" I laughed. "He's that guy! How funny."
My dad, a firefighter, was working one of his usual 24-hour shifts that Sunday and wasn't able to be at church. "Dad will be so happy to know that he's back," Mom said. "I'll have to call him when we get home."
Bethany came a few days later for her visit and I quickly forgot about that Marine. The following week at church, I saw him after the morning choir practice.
"You know, we realized something really funny after church last week." I told him as everyone walked to the choir room. "When you were here three years ago, my dad had met you and talked to you quite a bit then. My little brother even told you to make sure to tell him goodbye before you left-do you remember any of that?"
His look of surprise quickly turned to a quiet laugh. "That was your dad? I was wondering if he was still here. I didn't see him last week, though-was he here?"
I told him Dad had been at work last week.
"It's funny, I almost asked you last week if you happened to know that guy. So. you're that man's daughter."
Within a few weeks, we had John over for the long-overdue dinner my parents' had wanted to give him three years before. We all enjoyed an evening of ping pong, Pictionary and music. He didn't have his own vehicle due to Marine Corps regulations, but when my dad left to take him home that night it was with a promise of coming again the following week.
Soon John's presence in our home was becoming more and more regular. My family and John would all laugh over games after dinner, enjoy many discussions on topics of all sorts, spend hours playing music and singing song after song, and then trying to stay awake in the car as my dad drove the half hour back to the base late in the evening. We quickly discovered that John and my dad were alike in more ways than should be possible and the fact gave all of us endless amusement. My mom took pictures of them on days they ended up in nearly the same outfits and teased them that they must have called each other before getting dressed that day to verify the color shirt to wear! (Of course, she is hardly in a single picture from that entire time, being that she was always the one taking them!)
I was viewing all of the interaction between my family and John through the eyes of my newfound sense of resting in the Lord. I honestly thought that our age difference canceled any thought of anything besides friendship between the two of us. We enjoyed each others' company, loved singing together and talking about music, we had many similar interests and ideas, and I was thankful to have been given the chance to enjoy a pure friendship based on a common love of Jesus.
As we got to know him better, I remember thinking that he did measure up to so many of the things I thought valuable in a husband. I was still learning the difference between negotiables and non-negotiables, and was contemplating which things were essential to a godly man and which were just preferences.
At one point, John had mentioned his love of reading in a conversation with my dad. My dad asked him what his favorite books were and I heard his answer from where I was across the room. Nope, I thought. Not my type of books. Good, one more reason I could never end up with this guy. He was just a good friend-someone I could talk to very freely and easily and not worry about anything else.
One day John had a long weekend and wanted to visit our nearby Joshua Tree National Monument. My family hadn't spent a day out there in a while, so we all packed a lunch and drove into the park for a day of hiking and boulder jumping. At one point John and I ended up sitting on a gigantic boulder and as my 12 year old brother hopped from rock to rock around us, I found myself telling him about the events of the past two years and how God had dealt with me and changed my heart in drastic ways. We both told each other our salvation testimonies and talked about some of the hardest and best times of our lives.
Later, John, Zach and I went bouldering for about an hour. I thought of how my parents obviously trusted him. What I didn't know was the conversation they were having back at our picnic site.
"I think we're going to be planning a wedding next year." Dad looked at Mom. I wish now I could have seen Mom's look of shock!
"What?!" She laughed. "You're crazy! We shouldn't be talking about this now! I mean, Ashleigh's only seventeen."
"I'm serious," Daddy replied. "Have you been noticing or thinking anything about him?"
Serious again, Mom went on to confide in Dad that she had indeed wondered if the Lord was beginning to reveal that John was the man He had ordained for their daughter. In return, he told her he'd been thinking the same thing. They continued talking and came to realize that both had already been praying earnestly about the possibility, but that the feeling was so fragile they had been unwilling to even speak of it lest something be ruined. So began many hours spent in secret, my Mama and Daddy on their knees together praying earnestly, fervently, and unlike ever before for this young man God had brought into the life of our family, for the near future of their baby girl, and for an extra measure of strength, wisdom, and guidance as her parents.
All the while, they breathed not a word to me.
On my part, the day at the Monument was pivotal in other ways. In the afternoon, John and I played a game of Skip-Bo on the picnic table and as we laughed and joked about my quick and easy win, I felt my face get warm. Why did he look at me that way? I walked out and climbed on a large boulder. He followed me. It was the first time I started wondering. what was that spark?
