My in-laws came by for a while last Saturday and spending time with them got me to thinking about how their relationship came together. Having lost their spouses to cancer several years prior, my husband’s father and step-mother met and married the same year Eric and I were married. It was an exciting year for our family!
About a month after Eric and I got married, I came into work extremely tired. My co-worker asked me why I was dragging into work and I replied that my father-in-law called us late at night and we were up late talking. I remarked to her that it would be nice if he met a widow he could talk to that would be a nice companion for him.
After describing him for a little while, my co-worker said that he sounded perfect for her best friend. Her best friend was living in Idaho and my father-in-law was in Colorado at the time. That night she asked her friend if she would be interested in e-mailing with a gentlemen and she agreed. Eric’s dad and she swapped e-mail addresses and began corresponding.
I will admit that when they started e-mailing each other, I expected them to be long distance pen pals; so, I was shocked to find that they were talking on the phone for six to eight hours at a time. Before a month passed, he scheduled a trip to Idaho. Before two months passed, they were planning to get married. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that random conversation with my co-worker on a sleepy Monday morning would have led to a wedding. In December of 2005, they were married and they are still starry eyed for each other today.
God’s amazing orchestration of love and timing never ceases to amaze me. He orchestrates things together perfectly to accomplish His will. When we are born and who we meet is no mistake.
Eric and I met in college during a psychology class. His transcript evaluator only allowed him to transfer thirty-eight hours from his previous school even though he had completed over ninety credits. If he had transferred more credits, we probably would never have met. Additionally, both of us were planning to attend other schools, but God led us to the same school. (Psalm 37:23)
If you are waiting on God to bring you a spouse and you wonder if you’ve been forgotten, remember that His timing is perfect. His ways are so much higher than our ways and our limited minds can never fully understand Him. Even when we think our plan for our lives is flawless, He has a better one. His plan may not be the rainbows and smiles that we want along with our timing preferences, but it’s the plan that will mold us and shape us to be more like Him.
Each day that you are waiting (because you will always be waiting on Him for something even after you are married), focus your eyes and heart on Him. The lyrics below have always touched my heart and they are so true:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
— Helen Lemmel
No matter what you are waiting for, turn your eyes upon Jesus and trust in His perfect timing. His blessings on your life may not come as quickly as you would like them to, but they are always right on time.
Do you trust God’s timing in the area of your relationships? How has He blessed your life when you were not expecting it?
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