Continued from yesterday

To God be the glory great things He hath done! 

I was telling her about Jesus while we walked but my mind was in a whirlwind.  There was a popular song at the time with the line, “Then I went and spoiled it all by saying something stupid like I love you.” And it was running through my mind.  We walked to a stone bench under the pines next to a chapel and sat down.  What was going on within me was so consuming I couldn’t continue talking.  I finally said, “There is something I have to tell you.”  Donna said, “Go ahead.”  I replied, “I love you.”  She replied, “I love you too.”  

At that point, I said, “Let’s pray.”  My prayer was simply this, “Lord Jesus – If this is not of you, stop it.  But if this is of you, please confirm it.”  And “heaven landed with a thud!”  That is how I have described it for 44 years.  We were immediately surrounded and embraced by a manifestation of God’s presence!  He imparted (downloaded) everything into both of us – the knowledge, the thrill, the excitement, the affection, the commitment, the complete settledness.  It was done!!  We knew at that moment, sitting on the bench praying, that God had chosen us for each other and we were to be married.  We belonged to each other.  

From that moment, we have never had any doubt that God chose us for each other – not the slightest doubt – ever!  I always knew that I was capable of loving someone.  I never dreamed that anyone could or would love me the way Donna does.  This was and is something beyond my wildest dreams.  Later I discovered that Donna had been proposed to by a boyfriend the weekend before but had to tell him no.  She was unable to say she loved him.  

Her attendance at the camp was a last minute occurrence, just like it was for me.  The next day, at the end of a meeting in the little chapel, Donna experienced salvation.  The chapel had a life-size wooden cross and as she sat looking at it, God gave her a vision of Jesus crucified on the cross there in front of her.  When she saw Him and His blood dripping from the cross, she knew that He had died for her.  She wept as Jesus met her there, cleansed her, forgave her and made her His own. 

God impressed on us we were to be married – He didn’t say get married.  I still had my senior year of college to go and He knew that I needed to be loved not married.  We were married 13 months later just following my graduation from Michigan State.