09 Apr The Proposal

Sunday, March 17th was Stephen and my 8-month anniversary. The day before he suggested we go on a sunrise date since we didn’t really celebrate the previous month and that day would be crazy with his brother-in-law’s birthday lunch and St. Patty’s celebrations later in the day.  He said he’d pick me up at 6:20 and text at 6:00 to make sure I was awake. So at promptly 5:46, he sent me a “Good morning! Are you awake?” text.  At 6:20, I went outside into the still dark morning where he was waiting on the sidewalk with open arms and Starbucks sitting in the car.  He didn’t tell me where we were going, but as we drove I realized we were heading up to Signal Mountain, where he “hoped to remember” where to pull off (thankfully he did since he’d already done two sunrise tests). So we parked on the side of the road and made our way down to a rock-bench to wait on the dawn.

As we waited, we ended up talking about the sunrise and the spiritual analogies we’ve heard of how it’s like Jesus, the Son, rising from the dead. Stephen commented how it’s funny because the sun doesn’t actually move, but the earth does and comes more into alignment with the sun as it rotates closer. He said the actual scientific truth could be just as good of an analogy as the other.  At the dawn of each new day, we have the opportunity to come closer to God and in better alignment with His Son.

We talked a little more then I said, “Oh! I have a card for you!”  So I gave him the funny, tongue-in-cheek card I’d gotten about how awesome of a couple we are. He laughed and said he didn’t get me a card but he had a story for me (but first we had to stand up cause his “tush was cold” from the rock).

Stephen started his story and told about when he was in Thailand last June, BJD (the ministry he worked with) was having a 24-hour prayer time and he had the 3am to 4am slot. He said he was praying for Thailand and BJD when he thought maybe he should pray about me since at this point he’d already decided he was going to ask me out when we both got back to Chattanooga in July. So he cleared his head, sat Indian-style on the floor, then asked (in terminology he doesn’t normally use), “God, is Angela ‘the one’?” Before he could even finish the question, he said he heard so clearly over his prayer, “I will awaken the dawn.” He said it freaked him out because it was so loud and clear when he had just been expecting to get an “OK” feeling after praying. He thought, “Did I just hear that because I know it’s her middle name?” So he said, “God, if this is you, let me open my Bible to that Psalm.  So he opened to Psalm 57 and the whole first part was about David being chased by his enemies, so not a great start.  Then in verse 7, it said, “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise. Awake, my glory! Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn.” Then in verses 9-11, he saw them as promises for the future: “I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing to You among the nations. For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens, And Your truth unto the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; Let Your glory be above all the earth.”

So he said at that moment, he knew I was it. He reminded me of our conversation about the sunrise earlier and said that a dawn is what I have been for him, allowing him to see and understand aspects of God more clearly because of me.  He then turned in front of me so I was facing the sunrise, got down on one knee and, lifting the most beautiful ring, said, “So, Angela Dawn Garrison, will you marry me?”  And I said yes!  It was absolutely perfect.

-Angela