I’m convinced… just for this moment at least… that life indeed is a very beautiful thing. Friends may come and go… assignments loom ahead… more and more of things will be, well, hard. But there’s something more, isn’t there? A Love that’s letting me know He loves me more than I ever knew. More than just a vague admiration of my general personage. No. He loves me. Kayla Elizabeth Norris. All of me. I don’t see my full name enough. I have my mother’s name as well as my name. My father’s name, too. What a beautiful heritage.

I turn 19 tomorrow, and though that seems incredibly young to some, it’s also incredibly old to me. My last year of teenagedom. Past and gone for sure are the high school years and the university years are right now. One year almost through. Home, well Kona, on the sparkling horizon. Birthday presents hidden in secret hallways. Banana and chocolate cake being prepared in the kitchen. Downton Abbey on my laptop with lessons of unconditional respect and honourable faithfulness. My little cousins curled up asleep in their beds and my aunt and uncle just being absolute legends. I am here, now. And God loves me unconditionally, separately, uniquely. What an amazing God.

And Hillsong United comes on through my headphones:


We’ve got nothing to lose,
We’ve got no reason to hide.
We’ve got the answer inside of us
Its time we took the disguises off

We’ll see Your glory revealed, 
And see Your Name lifted high
There’s nobody else for us
Jesus You are the only One!

He’s the only one for us. Don’t try to think “oh that’s just for you” because WAIT IT IS FOR YOU, MY READER, TOO. Don’t try to persuade yourself out of it because you should be doing something else. Don’t try to live life out of love. That sucks. Easy, on some aspects. Well, downright easier. But is it worth it? Is it worth it to live life for yourself, wrapped up in cares and concerns of self-preservation? No. Live your life in Love. We’ll see Jesus Christ and his glory revealed! Oh, and what glory it is when love for a beloved is finally broken open! All the glories of a pearly-white rose-petaled tear-filled wedding yet so much more. Finally. 

So, I don’t know how to end this. Well, more specifically, I don’t know how to start this year. I don’t know how I should wait on Him. All I hear is “Just keep doing what you’re doing”. And I can’t wait… for I hope in someone greater. There is always more. May I become more of who God made me to be… for the sake of Him, not me. That is a lover. And simply, a lover is what I aim to be. Amen.