And suddenly, a comma! (THREE)

(exhale friends, the end is near! we can go back to macaroon photos soon!)

Losing a friend is hard. Losing my best friend was really hard.
But in my retelling of the tale, I left out the most important part of the story,

I left out My wonderful, gracious, extraordinary Heavenly Father.

Our friendship may have ended, BUT GOD remained a faithful friend to me. I may have been broken, BUT GOD was my strength. I may have felt helpless and alone, BUT GOD lifted my burdens into His mighty hands. I might have been friendless, BUT GOD filled my cup and then some.

As fate (or God! probably that ) would have it, I have simultaneously been experiencing this same kind of thing, but on the other end. On the end full of grace and goodness. One friendship crashing down, another being built back to glorious heights. He restored a different old, broken friendship. He resurrected it! He made it new! (it's like Easter all over again!)

And because of that, because of HIM, I have hope. Not because the situation looks promising,
But because I know God is in control of the situation. Redemption is inevitable, it's just a question of which side of Heaven it will happen on.

Because I know in the end, He wins.

And that's the best part about it.

Do you know that cute, cliche Christian quote? The one about not placing a period where God has placed a comma? A few weeks ago, I began erasing the self imposed period of this part of my story. I penciled in a comma. A divine, God ordained comma.

Sadness has been replaced with peace. Mourning slowly morphed into Joy. Weeping to (really bad) dancing. A friend lost, a new understanding of the Lord gained. And with it enough peace for a herd of hippies, which is one of the best side effects to date.

And so sorry if I faked you out with the dramatic title of this saga. This isn't really the end of everything.....

Though God's grace, it's the beginning of so much more.