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February 06, 2006
Faith Gladdened or, Tinkerbell's Very Good Day
When I was growing up, there was a group of cool, twenty-to-thirty-something ladies in my church.
One of those ladies, for reasons far too complicated and rife with inside jokes and explanations of sundry unique personalities, was called "Tinkerbell." In this post-Paris Hilton age, I know that sounds silly and possibly uncomfortable, but just trust me, okay? It was cool. For all common purposes "Tinkerbell" might as well have been her given, Christian name. Once, she was even entered into the church directory under "T."
In practically every Christian book on romance or seeking God's will or "biblical womanhood and manhood" there is a chapter on people who are "called to singleness." Usually, this chapter includes an inspiring description of a single woman who is in her late thirties, unmarried, but has thrown her energies into the church, a choice example for singles everywhere. Those authors probably should have just written about Tink. She has had a perpetual ministry with the girls in our church for about a dozen years. She has mentored a whole troop of us through junior high, high school, and college, and she still has a gaggle of younger ones under her loving, encouraging watch. She had us over for sleepovers, led us on water balloon raids on the boys, took us out for milkshakes at one o'clock in the morning, gently challenged us if we showed up in a skirt a little too short, asked us pointed questions about boys, and always exemplified a tireless servanthood to anyone in the church.
What I appreciated about her most, though, was her bracing honesty about being single. She never hid the fact that she wanted to be married, someday. In the context of her delighted service to us girls, her longing to be a wife was a simply stated fact, not a complaint. As her twenties passed into her thirties and as forty stared her in the face, she modeled a delicate balance of being content with her season without ignoring her natural desire to be someone's wife; she believed both that Christ was sufficient... and that it is not good for man (or woman) to be alone.
I was her first girl to get married. "I always knew you'd beat me," she exclaimed upon hearing news of my engagement. She promptly spent $300 to change a plane ticket so she could be back in Hawaii for my wedding. Once again, she loved well, and without jealousy.
And so my heart danced an ecstatic jig when I received a certain phone call last night: Tinkerbell is engaged. Yes, the Lord is kind.
Carefully Dramatized Life Accounts | By elissa | 05:15 PM
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