Just recently went to Manado Indonesia for a friend’s wedding.

Marlin, my colleague from grad school lab back in the days, was super kind and sweet to invite us to
join her on her big day.

Because of that, I had an amazing (though extremely short and intense schedule wise lol) time on this
beautiful island for the first time.

And of course, enjoy some local McCafe 😉

I think I can totally write a separate article on the anecdotes about my trip,
so here I will focus on her wedding and the topic of her wedding–True love waits.

Marlin, who has always been like the little sister figure in our lab back in the school days,
is probably one of the lab members that we’d least expect to get married early.
Why? Well first of all like I said, why would you expect a little sister to get married before all of her
big brothers and sisters? 🙂
But I think to me personally, it was more because I have simply never heard her mentioning any guys
or showing any interest in guys back then.

So how did everything happen? Although I couldn’t understand their love story shared on their
wedding because everything was in Indonesian…I was smart enough to ask Marlin about their story
a few months back…

Marlin and her now husband Yuansun, knew each other since childhood as they went to the same
church, but of course, nothing special or romantic taking place back then. It was only until after
Marlin moved back to Indonesia that the magic started happening 🙂
While I won’t be covering the details here, I think anyone should be able to imagine how”magical”
it is to end up being with someone that you pretty much knew for your whole life but never thought
of the possibility.
And for Marlin and Yuansun, not only that they were able to find each other after years of losing
contacts, they were also able to overcome all the challenges before they reached the stage of
marriage–long distance, uncertainty…and many more that I wouldn’t have a clue.

I wish I could share their love story more in details as I am sure it’s been mentioned during their
3 hour long ceremony and 4 hour long party (ok forgive me as I might be exaggerating a bit…
I just remember I left at 2pm and pretty much returned to the hotel at 11pm lol), but since everything
was in Indonesian I have to say I was pretty lost throughout the day.

But, the only sentence that the beautiful bride said to her husband in English was powerful enough to
make me burst in tears immediately when the words came out in her soft voice.

“You are the answer to everything I prayed for.”

Just very recently, the person whom I have been kinda liking told me that I shouldn’t believe in my feelings
because feelings are not fact. Love, as he claimed, is just a result of pleasantness in emotions.
It was, to be honest, quite hard for me to take–that I have liked someone who doesn’t believe in true love.

Love, is not just a temporary affectionate feeling, but much more.

C.S. Lewis once said,
Love is not affectionate feeling,
but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.

The well known scripture from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 also talks about love more than just feelings:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

Love, is such a powerful thing that enables you to make the strongest commitment to
put your loved ones before yourself.

When I heard the words by Marlin, I knew she has found her true love.
I couldn’t be any happier for the newly wedded couple as I was (once again) blown away
by the amazing meaning behind a blessed marriage with God in the center.

Despite I was indeed a bit overwhelmed by the size of their wedding
(apparently it was about 1,500 people and was considered common in Indonesia),

I believe this young couple’s wedding has really encouraged me and once again envisioned me with excitement
about encountering the true love of my life as well as entering a godly marriage.

There is never too early or too late in God’s timing.
True love waits.

My biggest congrats to Marlin and Yuansun 🙂