The Bookworm and the Cricket

 This is for my dear friend Richelle on her 21st birthday.

Happy 21st dear Richellephant!

The Bookworm's Birthday Promise

By Aarika Leigh Ormeo Alura 

 Once upon a time there was a bookworm...

and a tap-dancing cricket.

They were best friends.

-----

They shared a deep love for music,

for food...

for learning...

and, most of all, for the Lord!

 The cricket encouraged the bookworm to write for Jesus

while the bookworm urged the cricket to glorify God with her dancing.

 and even though they were VERY busy bugs...

they stayed in close contact, no matter how busy they were, over phone and facebook.

 the bookworm could feel God calling her. It had come time for her to grow up and initiate some serious change in her life. God was transforming her and she needed to follow His instructions.

It was hard because she knew that she would eventually be missing her best friend's 21st birthday. 

  But even though she couldn't be there, she made sure to celebrate from where she was.

 In a letter to her friend, she promised that

God would finish His work in her, changing her into a butterfly so that she could continue doing His work as a new bug...

and once that happened...

 she would fly home to be with her best friend and they would write and dance and glorify God together.

 The end.

Richelle Jean Navales was and is my best friend. She has taught me over and over again the importance of trusting and relying on God and His amazing, awe-inspiring plan. She reminds me that our timing is always off and God's timing is always perfect. That He has no limitations and has the power to create an amazing dancer in only four years and soften the heart of a control-freak in less than one.

She also reminds me that God is also a God that answers prayers. That He is a God that is ever faithful to us sinners who are so unfaithful and so doubtful and so miserably horrible to Him. He is a God that loves us and keeps us safe and does amazing things in this world like creating animals and babies and baby animals.

Richelle Jean is the definition of sweet and God-fearing and loyal and genuine. I thank God every day for her presence in my life and I pray that however long we may have with each other, however much time God may grant our friendship, may He always keep us accountable to one another and to Him. May He keep us from comparing ourselves to each other or to anyone else. May He remind us to encourage each other constantly and to turn to Him and praise Him for the time we have together.

Richelle Jean is also hilarious and ridiculous and awe-inspiring herself. Her love for God makes me want to love God more. Her burdens are my burdens and my burdens are hers. She is the best accountabili-buddy I could have ever asked for and the fact that God has given her another year to continue glorifying Him is nothing short of gracious and generous. Because Richelle Jean knows, better than anyone, how we deserve so much less than the love God gives us and yet He offers us everything instead.

I miss Richelle Jean every day.

I miss telling her stories and listening to her stories.

I miss her crazy phone calls.

I miss her infectious laugh.

I miss her dancing.

I miss her smile.

I miss her rebuke.

I miss her encouragement.

I miss her.

But I also know that it is part of God's plan for us to be apart right now and I trust God in His reasoning and His timing. I also praise Him for internet so that I may write this post for my one and only best friend.

I love you. Happy 21st birthday and I'm sorry that I can't be there. =]

Love from your biffers,

aareeka.