What’s the Story?

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Margaret

I love a love story and especially enjoy hearing how husbands and wives first met. Very often a man and woman are brought together in the most unusual of ways and frequently from faraway places.

For example, our daughter Linnea (who grew up in the Chicago suburbs) met her husband Adam (from central Florida) while they were both in Youth With A Mission (in Kona, Hawaii). Son Hans (from the same Midwest suburbs) met wife Katy (from England) while they were in a YWAM training school (in New Zealand).

Klaus left well-populated Chicago and moved to our tiny Michigan town where he met his true love Brooke. None of these six would have met without these unusual story lines.

Nate and I met during college, though we didn’t attend the same school. My girlfriend (at Wheaton College) and his guy friend (at Northwestern University) were engaged, and the two of them brought the two of us together on a blind date. Without our friendships with those particular students, he and I would never have met. If we interviewed 1,000 married couples, no two stories would be alike.

So…. does God have a part in all this? I like to believe he puts together these complicated scenarios to cause people to meet, sometimes setting the particulars in place many years before, in order for that one meeting to take place. After all, he’s a God who cares about the details.

One of my favorite love story meetings happened to my neighbor’s sister, but it didn’t begin with special chemistry or sparks flying. It all started when she had a brain aneurysm and lost consciousness. That’s a negative way to begin a positive story, but because of that aneurysm, Gayle had to postpone her plans for a trip to Europe with her girlfriend.

Four months later, fully recovered and feeling much better, Gayle and her friend embarked on their journey abroad. It was on that sight-seeing trip that she met her true love. There were no formal introductions, just a split-second decision to jump into the same cab in Florence, Italy. “If I hadn’t had that aneurysm,” she said, “I would never have met my husband. It’s the mystery of God.”

How much does God shape the circumstances around us? Because I’m convinced he fervently loves us, I believe it’s constant. Every time we pray, “Thy will be done,” he jumps into action, arranging and rearranging the events of our days. I believe life is more than a series of hit-and-miss occurrences, because if it was, we’d be no more than victims of chance. That doesn’t blend well with what we know of our watchful, caring, personal God. Scripture says he’s so involved with our lives that even when we’re rolling dice, he’s the one controlling where they land.

So the next time you bump into an unexpected change of plans or even an irksome interruption, pause to think that God himself might be behind it, setting up something special, just for you.

“We may throw the dice,but the Lord determines how they fall.” (Proverbs 16:33)

Crawling Along

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Margaret

Eight month old Emerald has accomplished a great deal in her short life, learning to recognize people, communicate in different ways, speak her first word (ma-ma), sit up, shake musical instruments, and eat solids. Since she’s checking off her milestones in the usual order, her next accomplishment will be crawling.

Already she does “the bridge,” a hands-and-knees crawling-lookalike, but so far it’s gone nowhere, though that’s not to say she doesn’t move. She’s perfected the belly-swivel and can do a 360 spin with excellence.

I remember when my firstborn was 8 months and was stuck in one spot just as Emerald is now. I figured he was frustrated and decided to teach him to crawl. Every day I worked with him on the carpet, moving his arms and legs in left-right crawling positions, showing him how.

As I continued tutoring him (which resembled a strange type of physical therapy), he’d often plop chin-first onto the rug, unable to coordinate his 4 limbs. Several weeks later, when he began to crawling for real, I beamed with pride at my young student, patting myself on the back for his success.

No one told me he would have crawled on his own, had I never worked with him. An experienced parent would have known that, and as my other 6 children came along and crawled by themselves, I learned it too. God is the One who programmed babies to crawl and later walk, wonderful gifts, but that doesn’t mean the process is easy for them. Each one has to develop persistence, working hard at it day after day, falling and failing again and again.

Our heavenly Parent does something similar with us. He saves our souls and then lets us work at becoming Christ-like. Unlike learning to crawl or walk, this isn’t a task that can be successfully checked off a list. It’s an effort that lasts a lifetime.

But just as God programs children to crawl and walk, he programs us with something, too. The 17^th century philosopher Pascal called it “a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man” that can only be filled by Christ. And that’s what’s drawing us when we begin a relationship with Jesus. We find ourselves desiring to become more like him. But just as a baby struggles to crawl and walk, we must persist in our efforts to walk in righteousness. When we do, God is pleased.

As for Emerald and her non-crawling, we’ve found the solution: to encircle her with toys so that as she swivels, she always has something fun to do. One of these days, though, she’ll crawl right out of that circle…. because that’s what God programmed her to do.

“Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (Philippians 2:12-13)

Tying the Knot

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Margaret

Brooke and Klaus have spent many months preparing to be wed, not just by gathering decorations, organizing the ceremony, and planning a menu but also by talking with counselors and pastors before ever getting engaged, in an effort to troubleshoot before trouble comes. They arrived at their wedding day more prepared than any couple I know.

Part of the reason for this is that they’d been through several relationship challenges during their 3 years together. These they viewed as blessings in disguise, warnings to show them where weaknesses were hiding. Their desire was to stand together on their wedding day with the wrinkles smoothed out as much as possible.

The result of their counseling was wholehearted, individual dependency on God, and part of their vows to each other last Saturday highlighted promises to keep Jesus Christ as their top priority, to go to him first, should difficulties arise. And just before the ceremony, they went to him in a fresh commitment, and also to request his blessing on their day, their guests, and their lives together. I admire them both greatly.

Because they had put first things first, their wedding day was carefree and joyful, a barefoot bride facing her groom in a lush outdoor setting with guests seated comfortably on bales of hay. Tears from both of them during the ceremony testified to tender hearts for each other and deep sensitivity to God. Nelson, who was officiating, reinforced that: “As long as you both keep Christ at the center of your marriage, you can’t fail.”

On this day when Brooke and Klaus “tied the knot,” they chose to symbolize the importance of tying themselves to the Lord by braiding three cords together. They want their marriage to be a trio with God rather than just a duo. Nelson explained: “Two people who are bound together in Christ are stronger than the individuals themselves.”

Of course we all know that life frequently dishes out the unexpected, and this young couple won’t be exempt. But I do think they’ll do well, mostly because they tied their knot in a triple cord with the One who has the power and ability to hold them together. May God use their relationship to coax the rest of us to do the same.

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:12)