Happy Birthday Jami.
Three years ago we were celebrating you at Cool Beans I remember staring at you from across the table, surrounded by our roommates and best friends, and I remember thinking, “How’d I find a friend like her? How did I happen to choose this seemingly random path for my life at the same time that my unknown best friends chose the same thing from across the country?” We always joke about the idea that, had we gone to the same high school, we wouldn’t have been friends, and how crazy it is that small choices let us to bring the friends we are; and honestly, I think that’s totally true. It took the two of us seeking something better in utter brokenness, and in that finding the Lord, and in that finding each other. We wouldn’t have been friends in high school, because that want harvest season, so to speak; it wasn’t the season of ripeness for us in terms of friendship, and our friendship and sisterhood was and is too special to ever be lost on a season outside of the peak of perfection. You were never someone I would’ve picked out for myself as a best friend, and that’s the beauty of this whole friendship. God knew the plans he had for both of us, long before either of us were born. And although I will time and time again, I didn’t, and would never, have to choose you, because God chose you for me, and that’s what makes this friendship so perfectly imperfect.
So there we were, sitting in a coffee shop, drinking lattes and eating snacks at 9 o’clock at night, and even though that was only the very beginning of our friendship,I knew. I knew you would be my person; to lift me up, to bring me back down to humility, to ask me the hard questions, to celebrate with me, to mourn with me, and soon, to stand by my side as one of my sisters on one of the most important days of my life. And here we are now,a little more than three years into our friendship, even though it feels like a lifetime, and I’m in another country, celebrating you from afar, because you mean that much to me; and James, you’re worth it. I wouldn’t be where I am without you, and I really mean that, because you’re one of the perfect people God works through to keep pushing me on this journey. And we may not always be in the same place for the rest of our lives, but God has synced our hearts to the same rhythm, and to have your love and friendship is do much more than I could ask for.
I love you, champ.
Happy Birthday Jami.
