Love Notes On Candy Wrappers

The more I learn about relationships, the more my parents completely astound me. Even after 25 years of marriage, they still sit on the couch together and talk every night. My mom still sings while my dad plays the piano (Sometimes it gets depressing when they choose to sing Les Miserables songs every night, but I guess it's almost cute). My mom still gets excited every time my dad comes home from work and greets him with a kiss. As I look at them, I see the love-struck eyes of young honeymooners somehow trapped in 50 something year old bodies. (If Mom or Dad is reading this, that was a typo. I obviously meant **30) Honestly, who wouldn't want a marriage like that? The older we get, my siblings and I wonder about their secret. How does a marriage like theirs even start? The answer came at dinner one night: It all began with a nine-year story of quiet pursuit, sprinkled with a few love notes on candy wrappers.

Long story short, my parents met in a church during a missions meeting my mom was speaking at. Apparently, my mom was quite a beauty when she was my age. With long locks of ebony hair, a dentist-advertisement smile, and a heart after God, my mom was eight-five pounds of beauty when my dad first laid eyes on her. He met her at a missions meeting while she was speaking to raise money for a trip. His  small donation ended up being one of the biggest investments he'd ever made. She worked as a receptionist at her church, and it didn't take long for my dad to leave his church and start attending hers "by coincidence." Long story short-- nature took its course, and my dad became the first and last boyfriend my mom ever had.

Growing up in the Philippines, neither of my parents were very "well-off." My mom had eight brothers and sisters, poor living conditions, little food, and three jobs. My dad had ten brothers and sisters, mediocre living conditions, and a high value for education. Obviously, neither had much money to spend on dates or gifts.

Still, my mom has a trunk filled with all the things my dad had given her. I felt privileged to look at and hold the relics: old bookmarks, figurines, and love notes. I came across what appeared to be trash, but then the sharpie scribblings on the back caught my eye. The crumpled candy wrappers were embellished with confessions of love and "I'm thinking about you" notes. I asked my mom about them, and she told me that they didn't have spare money to spend on nice cards. As a result they would often write notes to each other on napkins, receipts, or candy wrappers. Things have changed drastically since then.

After becoming a doctor, my dad could afford to give my mom much more than bookmarks. He began lavishing her with exotic trips, dazzling jewelry, and fine clothes. Still, I don't think anything will quite compare to those candy wrapper notes, burrowed in the corner of their trunk.

There is something so sweet and innocent in those candy wrappers. It was like elementary-kids passing notes to each other during class. I think it was those seemingly insignificant reminders which made everything else so significant.

(I took this creeper shot at the Valentine's Day dinner^)

People always say that the Bible is God's love letter to mankind. The more I think about it, the more it blows my mind. I mean, the God of the universe, who IS love, who IS the most beautiful, cares about me simply because Jesus has made me beautiful to Him. That's wild. He wrote a 1800 page love letter to us? Yet, I act like I don't have time to read it. When someone you like texts you, you read it over and over again. How much more should we do that with God's Word? 

This past spring break, I began to think of it like this. While in Haiti, a boy decided to write me love letters which was frustrating because 1.) this was a mission trip, not summer camp 2.) we didn't even speak the same language 3.) he pulled the "Maybe this is what Jesus wants" card and 4.) I still have no idea who he is. Needless to say, I have no idea where the letters are. My brother said he burned one of them, and I'm sure the other two are buried in a traveling suitcase in my attic.

On the other hand, I have a box full of notes from my loved ones. It's called my "happy day box." Every time I'm having a bad day, I go through the box and read and reread all the notes from the people I care about the most. 

I think that's a lot like how it is with God. The more we know and talk to Him, the more we want to read and reread what He has said to us. The Bible takes on a whole new meaning. It brings on feelings and memories that are unique to our relationship with Him. However, if I maintained a superficial relationship with God, he would seem more and more like a stranger in a foreign country. My Bible would end up in my attic, kept out of obligation. If I wanted to get to know someone, I wouldn't ask people about them, I would simple ask them directly. Learning about God is awesome, but it means little unless we know God for ourselves. I hope this is making sense.

Anyways, I was thinking that in the same way my dad wrote love notes on candy wrappers for my mom, God does things like that for us. The small things we often take for granted are actually love notes that we overlook. I guess God's love notes could look like all sorts of things. 

It could be in those West Texas sunsets, starry nights, or just having your favorite worship song come on.

My best friend, Kylie, and I have this thing for making secular songs into worship songs. Hers is "A Thousand Years" as featured in Twilight. It's actually about how Edward has loved Bella for a thousand years, but it's kind of cool how God loves us like that too. Mine is "Everything Has Changed" by T-Swift. Weird, I know. But the chorus keeps singing "I just want to know you better" and that's become the cry of my heart lately. It's been pointed out that the green eyes and freckles thing doesn't really line up, but I try to block that out. It astounds me how God uses a song originally about a vampire stalker boy and high school relationships to show us how much He loves us.

A lot of God's gifts are found in the obvious things, like church, prayer, and sermons. These are foundational, and I'm not underplaying them at all. But today, I want to encourage you to look for God in the less obvious things-- in the little things that He's doing and working in to show you how much he loves you. Listen to what's going on and look at the world around you.

And maybe, just maybe, you'll find a few of His love notes on candy wrappers.