Author Mary E. Hall

My new feature is called ROMANTIC REMEMBRANCES! Short, sweet real-life stories of romance. My first guest author is (drumroll, please . . . ) Kristy L. Cambron! Kristy writes vintage romance with a heart for Christ . . .  HERE.

She posted this wonderful story there on July 23, 2012:

Stilettos and Stars

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “The earth laughs in flowers.” If that’s true, then I believe a woman laughs in a fabulous pair of heels.

We women adore heels.

‘Tis true, my friends. We do. Some of us will wear anything from stilettos to kittens, just as long as we have a little lift when we leave the house for the day. Rain, snow and ice? We’ll grab a sturdy pair of wedges. A pair of jeans and an outdoor concert? For us it’s heels that won’t sink in the grass. Black and white spectators, mustard-yellow satin, bows at the ankles or turquoise with peacock feathered jewels on the top –  we love a pair of unbelievably gorgeous heels and don’t care who knows it.

So you’d think someone that buys into that philosophy could find the right heels for every occasion short of a marathon, right?

It was just dusk, dreamily so, with a soft September wind and cloudless sky that invited us to spend the evening out of doors, like an old friend that had welcomed us home.

My date drove down the gravel driveway to his grandmother’s home and pulled the truck to a stop in the center of a rural dreamworld. It was peaceful, calm. It had a background laden with cricket-song. it had a shining moon overhead and a truly remarkable view of open fields with the occasional firefly floating up from the tall grass. We hopped in his truck bed and sat on a quilt, just gazing up at the marvelous expanse of stars up ahead.

And as if God  whispered my name out there in the quiet, I felt peace…

I’d never seen such a clear night sky. I suppose I’d always lived on the edge of a city and perhaps the sky was hazy because of it? Maybe I’d just never taken the time to really pause and appreciate a sparkling ceiling overhead? Whatever the reason, you’d have thought it odd for an eighteen-year-old girl to find herself so awestruck by a handful of stars overhead, but I was. Clearly I was; all these years later, the memory is still crisp in my mind.

I also realized that my heels didn’t fit the scene in my date’s countryside. I remember slipping them off and tossing them in the truck bed as if they didn’t matter. And it was funny, but in that moment, they didn’t. Instead we sat, the two of us just talking and holding hands, with my feet bare and my heart open to remembering. I memorized the smile on his face and that romantically sweet, oh-so starry sky overhead.

I remember the cadence of the breeze as it patted my face.

I remember the coolness of our night as it knocked on autumn’s door.

I remember falling in love with the clear sky… I remember falling in love with him.

That memory with my someday-to-be husband is still fresh today… I remember it now as the night of Stilettos and Stars.

Have you ever had a moment like that, one so remarkable that your memory has honored it with its own name? That night will always be Stilettos and Stars for me.  It will always remind me of the power of simple, the magic of quiet, and the sweetness of honest beginnings. It stays in my heart. It gives a remembrance of the moments that God steps in and makes a connection with us – when He delights in giving us the desires of our hearts (even if we didn’t really know what we wanted).

If someone had handed me a fast $1000 to do with whatever I wanted, shoe shopping would probably have crossed my mind. I doubt I’d ever have thought of buying a few extra moments under a September sky from some fifteen years ago. But now? Given my choice? I’d pay to be back there again. I’d pay to toss a pair of Jimmy Choo heels in the back of a truck bed like they don’t matter, and appreciate the stars with my husband’s fingers laced with mine.

“He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the stars and count them – if indeed you can count them.’ “

~ Genesis 15:5

I am five-months pregnant and yes, I am still wearing heels. I’m not driving an old pick-up or taking jaunts through the rural field grasses mind you, but I am still enjoying the subtle smile that a pair of heels gives me on a busy weekday morning. And sometimes, just sometimes, I smile when I put on a pair because I remember how unimportant they truly are. They’re pretty, but I want more. I want to remember the starry moments. I remember the glittering sky and my heart’s finding of peace in that place. I remember God making an appearance, His breath and His whisper shielding us in peace, and putting His thumbprint on our lives.

It was a perfect sky. A sweet memory. A spectacular pair of heels that matter not at all. Thank you, God, for those moments born of you.

What are your “Stilettos and Stars” moments with God?

-Kristy L. Cambron