Where do I start?
The day Cami was born?
The day I married her dad?
The day I met Scott?
I really think the story begins the day I met Jesus, but I can’t tell you which day that was. Growing up Catholic, God always seemed to be there.
But without a doubt I can nail the day I knew Jesus loved me so much He died for me: December 21, 2000. The day I was born again.
I can also tell you the first scripture that filled my heart when we settled on this land here in the shadow of the Sutter Buttes. “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth,” Psalm 121:1-2.
I can’t tell you how many times I have stood in our front yard and recited Psalm 121. But I can tell you the moment standing in the front yard when God recited this verse back to me. You are looking at the moment in the above photo.
This picture was taken several hours before the wedding. Drew and Cami decided they wanted to do most of their photos early so they could spend as much time as possible with their guests. The photographer invited the mother of the bride to watch the “first look.” I didn’t understand what “first look” meant. The photographer explained to me that this would be the moment the couple first saw each other in their wedding clothes. Nobody else was invited to experience this intimate time with the two. Just the photographer, the bride and groom, and me.
Drew had his back to us waiting at the gate. Cami began walking down the grassy aisle as I slipped off to the side of the house hoping nobody noticed me.
The months leading up to the wedding had been a whirlwind of work and emotion. Weddings bring out the best and the worst in people. It certainly brought out both in me.
Tears hit my eyes and my legs trembled with weariness as our first born approached the man of her dreams standing there at the fence waiting for her. The photographer snapped away freezing the moment in time. A prayer came to my lips but I don’t remember what it was. I felt too tired and emotion-fueled to remember my own name.
Yet I do recall the instant I took my eyes off our daughter and lifted my eyes to the hills I grew up in. The Sutter Buttes.
I rode my pony through these hills.
Walked through rainstorms with oak trees sheltering me.
Chased wild pigs and woolly goats and ring-tailed cats with a camera in my younger years.
Too many memories to tell of these hills.
But one profound memory in the Sutter Buttes stands out.
I was 18. Scott, then my boyfriend, had broken my heart. I walked into the Buttes alone in a storm. Found a rock to huddle against as the rain beat down. As my tears beat down. I didn’t know Jesus personally then. But He knew me. And there by the rock the Savior proclaimed his unfailing love for me. I don’t know how Jesus said this to me, and I don’t know how I knew. But I knew. A warmth came over me. A peace I’d never felt before flooded me. God’s unfailing love blanketed me in that hard, cold storm. And I knew. I just knew…
I savored the warmth and peace and love for a timeless moment and then I stood up and walked back into the storm for 15 more years. I returned to the house and called Scott. A man’s who’s imperfect love could never fulfill my deepest longing to be loved by a perfect God.
The Maker of the Sutter Buttes. The Maker of you and me. Broken people in need of a Savior. In need of the love from the Lover of their souls.
And there in the yard watching our daughter in her wedding dress meet eyes with the man she adored with the everlasting hills behind them my Savior again proclaimed his love for me. And as I lifted my eyes, Jesus also said He would help me get through the wedding. Get through my emotions. Get through others’ emotions. Not just get through, but break through. That God’s unfailing love would break through on this day.
And it did.
So many people experienced God’s love at the wedding.
“There’s so much love here,” people kept saying.
So where do I finish this blog? The day Cami grew up?
She’s on her honeymoon right now on a cruise in Mexico and I miss her so much.
I miss the little wispy-haired girl with the strawberry birthmark on her lip. That thermometer God put on Cami’s face so we didn’t freeze our baby girl to death in Germany. Scott and I were so young and stupid and we carried Cami in a backpack all over Europe when we lived there. To outdoor pubs. To the snowy Alps. To Disney World in Paris in January. When Cami’s birthmark turned blue we knew it was time to get her inside. That is how good God is. He put a thermometer on Cami’s face to keep her safe.    
I know God will keep Cami safe now as she steps into married life. The Lord’s love for Cami and her new husband Drew is unfailing.
And God’s love is unfailing for you and me.