The Right Place at the Right Time ...

I read today of the death of a mother named Sarah in Genesis 23. Afterward, her husband named Abraham sent a servant to find an Israelite woman for his son, Isaac, to marry. That is just the way they did it back then. So off Abraham's servant went to the city of Nahor, and when he arrived he stopped at a well for water and prayed that God would send there the lady that he wanted to be Isaac's wife. While there a lady named Rebekah came to the well and she was God's chosen. And so the story ended in marriage (Genesis 24).

Such put my mind on how my wife and I met thirty-six years ago. I was sixteen. My family attended Bordeaux United Methodist Church. My wife to be was singing in the choir. And later I learned that her extended family had three generations in that local church. Our first date was on the tennis court of the local high school there. As teenagers, we were in the United Methodist Youth Fellowship together. Our families got to know each other. And four years later we married -- May 21, 1976.

Even though our experience is quite different from the marriage arrangement with the families of Isaac and Rebekah, the common factor is in the work of God. After Abraham's servant met Rebekah and by her actions God assured him that this was God's chosen mate for Isaac, he said to her family and I say this day of meeting my wife and our marriage:

"... I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord ...

who had led me the right way ..."

(a portion of Genesis 24:48)