I’m in Quito this month and, well, I went on a date last night.
Surprised?!
Okay, okay… I’ll back up a bit and give some background to this story.
Nine years ago, I came to Ecuador on my first-ever international mission trip. It was after that week in Patate, Ecuador helping serve at an elementary school that I realized international missions wouldn’t be a foreign concept in my life. I was captivated! Not only by the missions aspect but also by this country; by the Spanish language; by Ecuadoreans.
Six years ago, I came back to Ecuador to study the beautiful language of Spanish… not realizing how important it would become in my life at the time. While I was here, I fell in love with the city of Quito. The vastness of it! The colors. The people. The mountains. The history.
Then comes the World Race… and where does it send me? Back to the first place I ever felt that “mountain-top experience”. Where 9 years ago, I first realized that my life was no longer my life but a life that was to be led by what God had planned for me.
So, logically… this is where God introduced me to whom I have no doubt is the true love of my life….
The guy I went on a date with last night.
Okay, so there’s this place here in Quito called Café Mosaico. It’s a gorgeous little, ivory covered, brick café on the top of a mountain that overlooks the vast beauty of this grand city. It was one of my favorite places to go when I lived here six summers ago. You hike a few flights of stairs, walk up a pathway and then you’ve arrived to one of the best views you could ever imagine (especially at sunset).
So, that’s where we planned on going… my date and I…. and I couldn’t wait!
When he arrived at Casa Blanca (the housing location for our squad this month) to pick me up, I was a little nervous. I didn’t really know him and to be honest, he looked a bit different than what I remembered him looking like. You see, we had met before, and we’ve known each other over the years, but haven’t kept in touch as much as I would have liked…. So at first glance, I didn’t recognize him. But! Immediately, I felt comfortable in his presence and excited for the date, so off we went.
But then, I realized we weren’t headed for the café and I was confused. I thought that was the plan?
Next thing I know, I’m being led out onto the beach. Odd, but okay… I like the beach, too. I’m filled with wonder but also a sense of excitement because I know he’s got something awesome up his sleeve. This guy… he’s full of good ideas that he knows I’ll love because he knows me. He’s had years to get to know me so he knows what I like and what I don’t like. The beach? Spot on. I loveee the beach! So, it’s not the café that I was expecting… but maybe I’ll enjoy this more.
I look to my left and I notice a little wooden shack-like open-aired café / restaurant right on the edge of the sand. A little bungalow type place with tables outside and lights strung up around the thatch roof. We walked towards it and I look around for the name of the place:
Café Mosaico
–written in big wooden letters above the area where a door should have been–
Wait… what?
I’m super confused at this point. I didn’t know there were two! I thought it was only the one that was on the mountain.
Still, I follow him to a table and sit down.
Looking at him with the ocean to my left and a salty breeze in the air, the sand beneath my feet… knowing I’m at one of my favorite places in Quito (though the location was off a little bit), sitting at a wooden table across from a dark-haired guy whose only goal that night was to make me feel worth his efforts… to feel loved… oh man! Talk about a rush of feelings!
I felt extremely content. I felt happy. I felt desired. I DID feel worth it, and yes, I felt extremely loved.
As quickly as the date started, however, it ended.
Why?
…I woke up…
I opened my eyes and it was 6:45am on a Sunday. I was in my bed at Casa Blanca. I was in a room with 7 other girls and at this point… I was completely confused.
Not confused because I didn’t know what had just happened… for once, I vividly remembered my dream! That NEVER happens… but this time, I couldn’t shake it. I also couldn’t shake the feelings I felt from the dream. I still felt giddy…. I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face.
My confusion though… who was this mysterious, dark-haired guy that captured my thoughts that night?
I didn’t think much more about it all day as I went about my daily activities. I mean, you know how dreams are… it was probably just someone I saw in passing that my mind held on to, right? Don’t they say that those people come back up from your memory during dreams and such?
Then tonight, during worship, I felt a strong desire to just sit and write instead of singing and worshipping with the rest of the squad. I could feel God tugging on my heart telling me that I needed to write down what I had dreamt last night.
Why, God? It was just a silly fantasy about being a girl that someone desires enough to take on a date that’s romantic. Why do I need to write this dream down?
But… I did. I started writing the details that I remembered and then that made me wonder again… who was this guy?
I didn’t have to wonder long before He spoke to me again…
“Anna Lauren, it was me. I took you there. I was your date.”
Jesus was my date… my pursuer.
He took me on a date to show me that HE wanted to be the one that completes me, that makes me happy, that makes me feel warm and giddy inside, and that I strive to impress.
Then it occurred to me…. why the beach?
Why was Café Mosaico on a beach (which, by the way, is NO where near Quito) and not on top of a mountain like it should have been?
He wanted to make it personal.
The beach was, is, and always will be OUR place. Ever since I can remember, the beach is the place I feel safest; the place I feel the freest; the place I feel HIM closest to me.
So… last night I was shown that these feelings I’ve been feeling after my break up last year are just lies because…
I AM worth it. I AM loved. I AM being pursued!
Song of Solomon (aka: Song of Songs) 2:10 says, “My beloved spoke and said to me, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.”
Jesus will always be our pursuer. Our devoted. Our lover. And He desires to show us that…
So, what now?
Well, I’m just as giddy as can be and honestly, I already can’t wait for the second date!
(I recommend you listening to the song below… the squad was singing it when I came back into paying attention to what was going on around me… pretty significant!)
