“So…where did you meet?”

  “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Argentina. United States of America. Two very different countries on two different continents. The culture is different. The food is not the same. The music, the people, the institutions and the language are all different. The seasons are reversed, and the water even goes down the drain clockwise in the USA and counter-clockwise in Argentina!

My husband Jorge is Argentine, and I was born and raised in the USA. Hearing this, new acquaintances invariable throw us the same question: “So…where did you meet?” It’s interesting to observe how their facial expression is immediately transformed from one of casual curiosity to one of shock – bordering on horror – when we respond: “We never met…well, actually we first met at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport when Jorge came for the wedding.” Their intrigue peaks when we add: “…and we’ve had a wonderful marriage for X years.” (X = 35-going-on-36 this year)

Almost satisfied that they figured it all out, and matter-of-factly they usually reply, “Oh, it was an arranged marriage.” Still wide eyed, they expectantly wait to hear the details. We continue…

It was arranged, that’s for sure! God arranged it. He orchestrated every detail in each of our lives leading up to the moment when we stood at the marriage altar at the Apostolic Christian Church in Norton, Ohio, two months after having met. Because Jorge knew very little English then, I had to nudge him and whisper “Decile que SI” when my dad, the preacher, asked him if he would take me as his lawfully wedded wife.

Marriage was not in my plans, but it was in God’s plan for me. It was not in Jorge’s plan to get married until he was several years older. But it was in God’s plan for him. Looking back over the years we’ve been blessed to share together, we cannot thank Him enough for having brought us together to serve Him, and we truly praise Him because “His way is perfect…and He makes my way perfect.” (Psalm 18:30,32)

In future blogs, I’ll share some of the background details and how God worked in each of our lives to get us together: trips, visitors, a fatal accident, learning Spanish, answered prayers, a college professor, and snail-mail all played a part.

What is God using in your life to carry out His perfect plan?