February 3rd, apparently, was supposed to be a national holiday for Max.

The day was officially “National Golden Retriever Day.” I know what you are thinking and, yes, Max is pretty upset at the snub.

I tried explaining to him that the date wasn’t on my calendar, and that only made things worse. It is now.

But today, February 4:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” – John 8:12

What I did not forget and never ever will forget is the significance of February 4, today. It was this date in 1977, a Friday, when Rebekah and I went out on our first date. I’d say it turned out to be a home run of an idea for two 20-year-old college students, especially considering what has happened in the ensuing 48 years.

Rebekah already had a clear idea of the direction her life would be headed. The call to ministry would not quit, and so when we met she was already grounding herself in a broad study of The Humanities in preparation for graduate school: Literature, Art History, Religion, Western Civilization, English, Greek.

I on the other hand was not quite so well focused. My interests were, shall we say, less academic; also not exactly goal oriented. My immediate objective was simply to complete my first year of college without failing. And in so doing I would reverse a multi-year trend when it came to performance at school.

All I knew then was what I did not want to do. To date I had already ruled out working in my dad’s business, management, retail, and anything requiring math, science, or languages. Plus I was firmly convinced I did not want to go anywhere near teaching. What remained was – if I did not flunk out first – something in the social sciences.

So I was taking core curriculum plus a couple of electives in psychology and sociology – but mostly playing. And Rebekah was preparing to serve God in some as yet unknown capacity as an ordained Presbyterian minister.

“Good luck with that,” the people around us must have thought, “Rebekah will never get a job and you will probably never graduate.”

However…

None of that mattered February 4, 1977, because all we did was go to a basketball game with a group of friends and then walk back to her dorm.

But something was set in motion, even if we didn’t know it, sitting on the bleachers together, talking and laughing, seeing the light in one-another’s eyes.

Maybe what we saw was the light of the future, the light of possibility, the light of God shining through from the deeper places, the light we were being asked to carry forward, together, into the uncertainties of the world.

We both caught a glimpse of it that night, light and goodness and promise; today I am saturated in it.

In love, and because of love – DEREK