My husband and I ran into each other at church one Sunday. This was obviously before we were dating and this was the first time we had seen each other since high school. And he looked at me.
He looked at me like I was the only person in the building. He looked at me like he had been looking for me since high school and finally had found me. He looked at me like no one had ever looked at me.
All week I thought about how he looked at me. And whenever I saw his name in an old yearbook or on Facebook I would go back to that moment. The moment when he looked at me. And a peaceful smile would come on my face.
Years later when we started dating, unlike my usual dating scheme I put all the games aside and volunteered honesty. You know, cause usually it’s the don’t ask, I ain’t telling playing field. But for some reason it was different. So I voluntarily told him, “You know, you looked at me some kind of way when I saw you at church that Sunday. I can’t describe it, but it was completely different than any look I’ve ever experienced. You seemed genuinely happy to see me.”
I say all that to say, that like most huge life decisions we always wonder. Did I do the right thing? Was the timing right? What now?
But when I think about my marriage and God’s presence in my dating relationship with my now husband, I’m taken back to that day. See, the peace of God surpasses all understanding. And there was a pleasant peace in my heart when I saw Brandon that day and he looked at me. And still today, when I think of that moment, I feel this peace come over me all over again.
I guess what I’m saying is that when God orchestrates your decisions, you can still feel the peace of the moment even after it’s long passed, because His peace surpasses all understanding and is not like the world gives (Philippians 4:7; John 14:27).
Brandon and I don’t have a perfect relationship. I’m hard to live with. And we disagree. Not because we want to, but because we are two completely different people. But there is one thing we have always had in common, and that’s God. Because God is our common factor we can experience true love and peace.
Is it easy being loving all the time? No. Does everything go just right so I can be in a constant state of peace? Not hardly. But neither of those things are circumstantial either. What I’m saying is, I serve a God that can remind me of a peaceful moment from the past, that can still result in peace in the present, even when my current circumstances are anything but that.
My marriage may not be perfect, but my God is. And because He is perfect and we are married to glorify Him, we have a better chance at a “perfect” marriage than we would have by trying to make it happen on our own. We need God. And with the truth of knowing that we need God, comes His peace.