Growing up in a military family, you can spot a soldier from a mile away. They have a certain “swag.” Each branch even has their own swag. You can tell Army from Air Force, Navy from Marines, and if for some crazy reason, they don’t have the military swag, you can pick them out based on their haircut. While standing in line to go through security clearance this morning, I met a man in the Air Force. We started talking and he told me he was in Dallas for training, but is currently stationed in California.
Having both arrived insanely early for our flight to Los Angeles, we made small talk. We spoke about the military and how long he’s been active. He told me about his wife and showed me pictures of his beautiful daughters. I mentioned God and he quickly reciprocated with confirmation that he too was a believer. Y’all know I never shy away from a chance to make a new friend and it was absolutely comforting to know he is a believer. As he asked me about Korea I told him why I was going. I also told him about how I hesitated to follow through because of selfish reasons. I didn’t tell him what that meant, but in his mind he knew without me sharing that it involved the opposite sex, and soon he told me a beautiful story about how he met his wife.
The story started with Tim telling me that God always has a plan. He told me all about how he had his life mapped out. About how he was completely on track with the way he thought his life would work out and was about to propose to his girlfriend of two years when she told him she didn’t want to be an air force wife. Devastated and unsure of what to do, he spent some time rebelling from God. He found his way back to trusting the Lord and met his now wife Amy. Tim told me about the first time he met Amy. While helping a friend move, she was in sweats and had a side ponytail. He saw her again later out with some friends and as she caught his eye, not recognizing her, he asked a friend who she was. He told me about their first interactions with each other on a group outing, Tim made a joke and Amy responded with a feisty comment that again caught his attention. As Tim worked up the courage to ask Amy out, they scheduled to have their first date on a Wednesday.
The Monday of the week they would go on their first date, Tim got on his knees and cried out to the Lord asking Him to speak. He didn’t want to go through the heartbreak he had recently gone through and he just wanted to know God’s plan. Tim told me that in His time of crying out to God, he felt the Lord tell him, “You will marry her.” Tim explained he was thrown off guard by the tug of the Spirit. Yes, he was seeking answers but how could the Lord be telling him he would marry someone he had only known for a couple weeks and hadn’t even been on a date with. Tim and Amy went on their first date and shortly after their first date he told Amy about what the Lord revealed to him during his time of prayer. As he told Amy this, Amy responded saying “I know.” Confused, Tim sought clarity and Amy said, “God told me the same thing the morning of our date.” They were engaged 3 weeks later and have celebrated 9 years of marriage together.
As I heard this story my initial reaction was “that’s just crazy.” How can you know you will marry someone after just a couple weeks of knowing them? God reminded me of a couple things through my time talking to Tim. First, God is not a God of confusion ( 1 Corinthians 14:33), He promises that if we seek Him with ALL of our heart, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). Tim was seeking the Lord and asking God to speak and God spoke.
God knows our desires and He knows where our heart is and in everything we go through, He always has a plan. Tim knew 3 things about Amy: he was attracted to her, she was witty and could banter back with him, and she loved the Lord. I think our generation definitely makes dating far more complicated than it has to be. This stranger in the airport has no idea what is going on in my life and in my heart, but the Lord used him to open my eyes. Tim trusted the Lord’s plan and just went with it. I am so encouraged by their blind faith to trust what the Holy Spirit was telling them, what a fun love story!
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