Have you heard people say "God will send right (person, opportunity, or fill in the blank) at the right time." Did you believe it?
I used to hear it often and never really truly understood it or believed it. At some point, I am not sure when, I not only started believing it but I started experiencing it too.
I look back at my own life. I can't help but feel God was always there, opening and closing doors when the time wasn't right or the situation was wrong.
I met my husband 30 years ago this month. We will be recognizing 27 years of marriage in September. Looking back I see God's hand in how, where, when we met.
Before that summer, I had been in love twice. The first time I fell in love, I was scared by the intensity of my feelings. They were so real and so strong and I was young and not ready. It was the wrong time. I pushed him away. My second relationship, was very different. The relationship was on again and off again. I think my mom was right and I saw him for what he could be and not what he really was. He was the wrong man.
That summer 30 years ago, I moved away from family and friends and worked as a live-in nanny hundreds of miles from home. I spent much of that summer figuring out what was important to me including what I wanted in a partner. I went back to my final semester not looking for another relationship. I was going to finish 3 months of school and then maybe start dating again once I graduated and settled down with a new career. (I didn't know God had a different plan)
Meanwhile, that same summer, Steve was in an industrial accident that gave him a "wake up call". His goals and priorities shifted. He realized what he was looking for and wanted too.
School reopened and before classes even started, our paths crossed. Coincidence? Some may think so but I don't. Our paths had crossed before but the time was never right and we never actually met. This time I think God had a hand in it. Right time, right place, right people.
That didn't make it easy. I still had walls up around my heart. I didn't think I was ready. But Steve was persistent. He had all the qualities I knew I was looking for honesty, loyalty, patience, similar goals and values. We could talk for hours and he always made me a priority. The walls didn't last long.
Over the past 30 years we have had our share of challenges. Some I have shared in this blog, some will remain private. Neither of us is perfect and neither is our marriage (or our family). It's not a "happily ever after story" but it has been a "we will get through this together" story. Yet, along the way, through all of life's ups and downs God has been there opening doors, providing opportunities or challenges, closing doors and forcing us to grow. God has placed people in our lives for reasons, seasons and lifetimes. Each one a gift for the time we had with them.
I will never understand God or His plans. I don't know why he gives and takes away, or how he works. I do know that I am grateful for His hand in my life, even the storms and heartaches, God may let us experience pain or hardships but He is there with us when we do. I still feel His hand at work in our lives, guiding us and directing us. For some, what I believe is God's hand might be viewed as coincidence, fate, or luck. It might be. Or it might not be. However you see it, in my life, I am grateful for the way the right person entered my life at the right time, and we were both in the right place.
