love like Jesus.

The bittersweet ending of a time spent with four beautiful people swirled with the whirlwind of a trip to Arizona, a place that seems weird to think about calling home.  Reminding me of the note I wrote at 3 in the morning of my departure day. Laying on the denim couches, curled up after finishing season 10 of FRIENDS while writing to K and M that I was I felt like we were breaking up.

No more couch conversations, "Pee Potty's" and Hazelnut dates. No more Miggle smiles, cute sister giggles, or Macbook photoshoots. No more popcorn and pineapple chats, stories about our days, 6:45 p.m. routines, or sweet little hands brushing the hair out of my face. No more mixed matched bows, "Is she crawling yet!?", or  blue SIGG water bottles.

All I could do was sob and laugh, God really does have a sense of humor. Who breaks up with four people at once? This departure from 422 Coventry Lane has made me realize something huge.  I might just call it an EPIC mental breakthrough in understanding my walk with Christ. 

All though I have never dated anyone I have still fallen in love. After three weeks of chocolate eating, reminiscing over past pictures, teary messages, numerous calls/texts/emails, stalking facebook, and talking nonstop to anyone who would listen about these four people- I realized, my heart wasn't broken but overflowing.

I thought it was broken.  Leaving something I've known for 5 years, and end to a big chapter of my life, a "Goodbye" to something that I'm not sure I'll get to see again, and the biggest break of all - stepping out of community. But it's not about losses.  It's about gains.

God is teaching me to embrace opportunities to fall in love with my friends who became my family in the light of Christ. Maybe I am oblivious, but I've never actually seen my friends and families from a "fall in love" perspective. 

Why can't it be that way?  What would relationships look like if we treated them with the respect of our first love? How much deeper would our conversations be if we took the time to treat each other as the most important member of our family, and not just someone who lives in the basement of our house?  What if we stopped treating people like substitutes for absent people in our lives and started treating them like as if they were the only love we've ever had.  That's what Jesus does.  Undivided attention, open fridge, table set for a guest, a spare bed, a basement room in 422 Coventry, sharing two beautiful daughters, and an open door to live life together. Yup, that's love. Everyone deserves that. 

We didn't break up, no one cheated on each other, God is still at the center of our friendship, and my love for the Burley's is so strong that I need to share it, spread it, glorify God with it. It is way to alive for me to keep bottled in. It was the most beautiful and precious gift I have ever been blessed with  :)