Strange thing this puppy love. He cleans the house with a vengeance, yelling at his sisters to help. It's a countdown until she walks in. Eager to impress, he tidies, then posts before and after photos on Facebook, undoing his own good impressions.

She enters, his stomach does flips. I imagine hers does too, eager to make her own first impression a strong one. She smiles sweetly, fifteen year old skinny. She talks and looks me in the eye. I like that about a teenager. She accompanies us to church, Adrian steals glances at her through the corner of his eye from behind his guitar. Distracted.

Life all askew. Puppy love, a race to move forward, wanting to be there already when they are only here for now. How they don't realize it will all fly by soon enough, and they will work to grasp the time and hold it, slow it.

Fifteen and young, wanting to be older, surer, validated. But they are both right where God wants them, in the now, seeking Him, trusting the future to the One who makes it.

I pray they would. Temptation can be a deal-breaker. Life cannot be taken out of sequence and still end up in the right place at the right time. He is a God of order, and design. An artist who paints love into the  blooming hearts of kids.