Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about accidental meetings and chance encounters. Moving to a new city, meeting people has been on my mind. This week at BSF (Bible Study Fellowship, an International intensive study of the Bible that I’ve been involved with now for awhile) the first question on our studies was ‘How have you seen God’s activity during the week. (How has He provided, answered, comforted, reconciled, guided, etc.?)’
Obviously… that’s a big question that you could answer a million different ways. God is constantly moving and acting in our lives, constantly providing, comforting, reconciling, answering, guiding, etc. But for some reason… the thing I zeroed in on this week was provided. And the provision that came to mind… was friendships.
This whole thing came to me because I was thinking about a new friend that I met my first official week living in Savannah. She was in my BSF group. We smiled at each other a few times at the meeting. I mentioned when we were all introducing ourselves that I was a fashion and lifestyle blogger. When I got home, I saw that she had followed me on Instagram and sent me a DM. She wanted to get coffee, she thought it was so cool that I had a blog and had been toying with the idea of starting one herself. We met up for coffee a couple of days later and just clicked. We had so much in common and just spent the whole afternoon getting to know each other. She mentioned that she was actually going to go to a different BSF group at a different time… she had just come the first day because she hadn’t decided yet. I marveled at how lucky that she had come to the first meeting and we had met!
Thinking about it later, I started looking back at how I’ve met some of my dearest and best friends. As crazy as it sounds– all of my best friends… I met by chance or by accident.
Kristin? We were seated next to each other at a blogger brunch. Assigned seats. Yeah sure, assigned by Jesus, I’m pretty sure about that. We spent the whole brunch chatting and somehow just… never stopped.
Savannah? Kristin’s sister Jenni invited me to her holiday party… Sav was there and we clicked immediately. We started chatting about BSF and how i had been wanting to sign up for a group and it turned out she was a BSF leader at the Miami Young Adults group! I ended up in her group and we ended up BFF.
Jaime? Our mutual friend Leah and I were meeting up at Aventura and she happened to bring Jaime. We all did some shopping and had dinner at Cheesecake Factory. 3 years later we are like basically in love and I seriously talk to her all day, every single day.
Hana? We had a mutual best friend. We weren’t close. The day of the seventh grade church retreat, our mutual best friend bailed at the last minute and we ended up hanging out on the retreat. Something happened on that retreat that totally changed our lives– we became lifelong best friends. Hana isn’t even a friend– she is family. And it’s all because someone else didn’t end up coming to the retreat.
Laura? Somehow we both ended up interning at Nordstrom at the same time. I was arranging a dinner meet up for all the girls before we officially started our internships. Another girl and I split up the list of interns to call everyone to invite them. Laura was on my list. We talked on the phone for, like, hours. We had never met before. Somehow we just clicked immediately and were instantly best friends.
Looking back at all these friendships, it amazed me that it really, truly was not luck that brought them around- it was God. I truly believe that He brought all these women into my life. None of these were chance encounters, they were all divinely orchestrated by the Creator of the Universe who knows our hearts and knew that we needed each other.
And now, a word to my single friends. First of all– I feel ya, girl! You guys know that I’m single too. But this idea that there are no chance encounters and that our God is planning our steps and leading us to the things He has for us extends to more than just friendships. If you’re worried about meeting The One– don’t be. At the right time, He will bring the right guy into our lives. Just like Kristin was seated next to me at brunch, Laura ended up on my call list, Savannah came to Jenni’s party, Leah brought Jaime, and Hana and I ended up alone on the retreat… the guy God has for me will cross my path too. And your guy will cross yours. We can have peace in that knowledge and we can rest in that truth– God’s got our best interest at heart and He has our back.
And I truly believe that you have been brought here as well. You’re not here by accident. I think that you needed to hear these words today and I think that God brought US together for a reason. You think it’s an accident? How do we know each other? How did you find my blog? How did you see this post? Not an accident, friend. Thank you so much for visiting. I am always here for you and I count you as one of my friends as well. Thank you for taking the time to read these words and for spending time with me today– it means more to me than you know!
By the way– my new Savannah friend Jess shot these photos of me. She just started sharing her style on Instagram, you should give her a follow!
Outfit Details: Gwynnie Bee Plaid shirtdress , c/o | Chanel vintage crossbody, similar here | Kaitlyn Pan heels (affordable dupe for Valentino Rockstud heels!)| Gucci sunglasses
As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. — Proverbs 27:17
xo Steph
