You just never know.

Tomorrow is my 29th birthday. Wow. I know that in the big scheme of things, that's not so old. But from the perspective of my 18-year-old self, that was pretty old. I couldn't imagine being that old. I take that back. I'm sure that I could have imagined it, but I never tried.

As I've been approaching the last birthday in my 20s it made me think back to the first birthday in my 20s. I remember it very vividly. I wonder if I would remember it so vividly if events in my life had turned out differently. I wonder this BECAUSE the morning of my 20th birthday was the first day back to school after Christmas break, and when I left my dorm that January morning the first person I saw on my way to my 8:00 class was KJ Pugh. How about that? We were only friends. Not a word had been spoken yet about anything more. But there he was, the first person I saw at the beginning of my 20s, and he'll be the first person I see tomorrow morning as I start the last year in my 20s.

On the morning I was thinking about this I had just heard from some friends that may soon be living close to us. I thought about how 10 years ago as we were starting college together in Mobile, we couldn't have imagined all the events the following years would bring, and then to end up in a completely different place at the same time is pretty crazy. Pretty crazy? Or just the work of the God who "made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us" (Acts 17:26-27).

I didn't know on the morning of my 20th birthday that by my 21st birthday KJ and I would have been in love for over six months, that on my 22nd birthday we'd be engaged and just a few months from our wedding date, that on my 23rd we'd be living in our first apartment in Louisville, that on my 24th I'd be pregnant with our first child, that on my 25th we'd be making plans to move back to Alabama, that on my 26th...well, you get the picture. Here we are.

And I've just been thinking, we just don't know all the plans God has for us. We don't know where that new friendship may end up. We don't know what wonderful things may be in store, what friends from the past may show up to play a role in our futures. And in thinking about these things I just couldn't NOT think about the season one finale of LOST. If you're not a fan, it's okay to disregard the ending of this post, but I love the way art illustrates truth (I've got some good quotes to share from a book on that topic). The passengers on Oceanic Flight 815 got on a plane that morning having no idea what the next 108 days would bring. And the writers and producers did such an amazing job of illustrating that at the end of the first season. Who is that person that just sat beside you on a plane or that you happened to run into on your way to class? You just never know what part they may end up playing in your life. It's kind of exciting.