Aaanndd break!

Hello, friends!

I'd really like to post wonderful pictures of my bachelorette weekend or the delicious chairs I purchased at an antique store or the wonderful needlepoint stockings I got in the mail today, but I'm out of picture space on Blogger. Dumb.

So instead, I'll just tell you about my life, in no particular order, a la coffee shop conversation:

1. I'm getting married in FOUR.TEEN.DAYS.! What?! Madness.

2. I have three exams to take next week and have done virtually no studying for them. #senioritis

3. My mom & I are meeting with our wedding planner and catering assistant today to go through all the final details of the wedding. *Commence freak out because I'm meeting with said individuals and don't know where in the world time has gone.*

4. Last night my father & practiced our daddy-daughter dance. It's going to be so awesome! In addition to practicing aforementioned dance, my dad also took it upon himself to teach me the Cupid Shuffle and the Wobble. He and my mom have been taking dance lessons. I am kicking myself for not capturing this on video for all the interwebs to see.

5. I got in to grad school. Kindaaaa crazy. But exciting! And best of all I'll be starting next semester (pending this semester's grades - see #2 re: exam studying above - yikes).

6. I've decided what I'm getting Miles for Christmas, which, ya know, is kind of a big deal since we'll be on our honeymoon in Mexico during Christmas!! Eeeeekkkk so excited!

7. And to wrap it all up, I've decided to take a break from blogging until after all the exam/wedding planning/actual wedding/honeymoon craziness dies down.

Sooo next time you read something from me, it won't be Life with Liz anymore! It will be life as a Farthing :)

Merry Christmas / good luck with exams / Happy Festivus / Happy New Year!

In the mean time...

Hi, friends. While I'm writing pages upon pages of academic goodness and trying to edit bachelorette weekend pictures, you should listen to this spoken word from Matt Papa called "The Story of God." It goes from Genesis to Revelation and tells (surprise!) the story of God. It is SO wonderful and will make you worship. It's 10 minutes but its worth every second to listen to it. So take a study break or watch this during lunch, you won't be disappointed!

I'll soon give updates on life/my bachelorette weekend/tell you how I'm FREAKING OUT because I'm getting married in 18 days! Woohoooooo!!

P.S. Kate Middleton & Prince William are having a baby! It's going to be the most beautiful baby ever. Except for my future kids of course (only because they will have squishy, kissable, Miles cheeks).

The Really Weird No-Face Groom

For years, I've had dreams of my wedding. While my dress or hairstyle may have been different in each one, one thing was the same in all of them: I would eagerly await the moment my groom would turn around at the end of the aisle, slowly approaching him step-by-step, and as soon as he turned around my dream would end. Oh, yeah, and he WOULDN'T HAVE A FACE. That's just disappointing on all sorts of levels. Every detail of the wedding was perfectly styled and vivid, except for the most important part: my groom's face.

While those dreams were perpetually annoying, I think it reveals a lot about how we as the Church think about our ultimate bridegroom, Jesus. I think we *usually* get the big picture of this gospel message, but we seem to neglect the sweetest, most intimate part. Allow me to explain...

When I imagine Jesus sacrificing himself for sin, absorbing God's wrath and defeating death, ultimately betrothing himself to the Church, I kind of image the bride (the Church) as a generic, no-faced silhouette. I don't imagine my face, my sin, my shame, and my condemnation marring the face of Jesus' bride. How unseemly and unattractive! No way would that be kosher!

Except for the fact that it is.

Jesus didn't arbitrarily die for a concept of sin, he died for every sin I've ever committed. And he didn't absorb simply some random amount of God's wrath, he absorbed every ounce of God's wrath that corresponded justly to the sins I have and will commit. Jesus was humiliated, mocked, and shamed on my behalf. Fully being human, Jesus knew what it was like to live in confining, imperfect skin, to be embarrassed, to physically know pain. Yet fully being God, he had the ability to change all those crappy things about human nature by reconciling me to my Father, affecting my life now and for all of eternity. He did all of this for me, to present me as a blameless, perfect, righteous bride who deserves to wear white because of HIS record, not mine.

Thinking of Jesus in these terms engenders love and thankfulness. But not some arbitrary love and vague thankfulness - the sacrifice was costly in order to redeem an unsightly, unworthy bride. A bride who despite her depravity, was known in the most intimate way imaginable and loved in the deepest way possible. And that bride is you.

Better Grab a Kleenex

Here in Durham we've all been learning a lot about race lately. I'm pretty sure its a topic that I'll never master, but a topic I need to revisit often in order to see and repent of my own sin and run to Jesus.

John Piper wrote a book about race called Bloodlines. I've heard its amazing and its on my reading list, but I have yet to get to it. Here's a documentary/intro into the book that he wrote. This short (18 minutes) documentary shows Piper's own journey through racism, starting with his childhood in the segregated South and ending with the sweet, sweet decision to adopt an African-American daughter.

Race is an issue that we often overlook or don't recognize the full weight of. I know that's definitely true of my own life. May we recognize God as a creator of diversity and treat all peoples as image-bearers of our Father.

High Five for Friday: Is This Real Life?

This week has hosted some crazy/exciting/unbelievable/ridiculous things in my life. Here they are:

1. This. dress.

I can't believe this exists. Luckily I will not be taking bridal portraits in this masterpiece today. I'll be in my beautiful, fancy schmancy, vintage dress! I. can't. wait.

2. Cutest kid on the block.

Our neighbors come over to our house approximately 2.4 times a day. One of our favorite activities is coloring. This week C and I decided to color (here he's drawing me a monster picture to keep :)). I looked away for 5 seconds and then I see odd markings on Buddy, our dog. Normally this would be ordinary but these markings looked pretty dang intentional. When I asked C if he knew what happened to Buddy he just looked at me sheepishly with his big brown eyes. I couldn't handle it. I bust out laughing and couldn't even compose myself long enough to tell him he can't draw on Buddy. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come for my parenting skills.

3. "Mrs."

 Somehow this seems like it should be Miles' mom's hanger, not mine. I can't believe I'll be a "Mrs." in THIRTY FIVE days! Whaaaatttt?!

4. Quite the catch.

My garter also arrived this week and it's so cute! With flowers and pearls and buttons, it's hard to go wrong. Whatever guy catches this bad boy better appreciate the pomegranate color and pearl accents :)

5. Chubby cheeks and a bowl cut.

Miles' mom sent my mom some pictures of Miles when he was little. I can't even handle it. Between the cheeks and bowl cut, I'm a goner.