The One He Made For Me

I’ve been thinking about what would be the next thing to share where I’ve seen God’s hand unmistakably move. One that stands out in my mind is how he brought my wife, Serrell, and I together.

I hope this encourages those of you who are waiting on God’s choice for your mate.

After coming to know the Lord, I had made the decision NOT to date. I had been through more than enough disappointments in the relationships I had been in before I came to faith in Jesus Christ.

This was another step in surrendering my life to Jesus, and it wasn’t that difficult. I remember saying “Lord, you have one woman for me. I’ll wait for you to bring her to me.”

About a year later, Serrell and I became good friends through church, events, and doing things together. We had a good time when we were together, and were on the “same plane” spiritually. She loved the Lord, and had walked with him since she was 9. I wondered at times if she was the one God had for me. However, she had had a dream about another guy, and felt that he might be the one. So for a while we just remained friends.

One night, we were both working at a Christian concert outreach at one of the city’s major venues. She was one of the ticket collectors, and I had gotten there early to work as a counselor. When I arrived at one of the front doors I saw her sitting in the lobby. Time stood still for a minute as a looked at her, and I remember “feeling” the Holy Spirit “nod” to my spirit. That sounds strange, but it was an affirming deep in my spirit that she was the one. However, I had heard enough stories of guys telling girls that God had told them that they supposed to be married, and the girl running 180 degrees in the opposite direction. I had no intention of doing that, whoever she might be. So I said silently to the Lord that if it was Him I heard, that he would bring it to pass without my help. I would wait on Him to make it happen. Man - that took a load off my shoulders.

Let me just say that in the next several months, events happened that made us begin to think we should be together. The thing that opened the door, and told us that God was putting us together was when Serrell met with our pastor’s wife. She shared the dream she had had about the guy, and our pastor’s wife said that it didn’t mean what she thought – and gave the interpretation she had for the dream. She said as they prayed together, that she saw Serrell and I walking hand in hand down a long road. That, along what God had showed me months before, was enough to convince me that SHE was the ONE.

From that point on we began to walk into a closer relationship that would culminate in marriage. I had not formally proposed (“Will you marry me?”) – since we knew that we were to be together. (Later, I did the formal question.)

Once Serrell was convinced that it was God’s will for us to be together, three events occurred that let her know beyond doubt that I was supposed to be her husband. She was asking God for confirmation - as Gideon did in the Old Testament – with what is called a “fleece”. In the account of Gideon, he wanted to know that God REALLY WANTED him to go to war with the Medianite army – since there were so few fighting men. So he put out a sheepskin (fleece) and asked God if he was going to have victory to make the ground wet with dew overnight and the fleece remain dry. The next morning the ground was wet and the fleece was perfectly dry. Gideon asked the Lord one more time to confirm by making the fleece wet and the ground dry. The next morning the ground was bone dry and the fleece was sopping wet.

So unbeknownst to me, Serrell had put out three “fleeces” to God to confirm that I was the man to be her husband.

Fleece 1 – The Job

Interestingly enough, after Serrell and I had decided that we were going to be married, I lost my job at a department store that I had had for 17 months, because of slow sales. God had provided the job for me when I was desperate. Now, I’m not a salesman, and in a way, it was a relief to leave that job. But here I was, newly engaged, without a job. The following Monday, we went to a temporary employment agency to find me some work. Since my major in college had been computer science, I was hoping to find something working with computers, but was willing to take anything. I took the skills tests, and waited for the woman to collect possible jobs that I was suited for. The first job was a 3-month temp job at an IBM field office. I would be using a computer to take calls from field engineers and route them to the upper-tier support engineers in the office. I readily accepted, and was excited and thankful to have found something so quickly. That night, Serrell and I went to the monthly Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship meeting. I played the piano for the singing part of the meetings every month. When the meeting was over and we were walking to the car, Serrell said “I have something to tell you.” “What’s that?” I responded. She said “Well, don’t get too excited, but… I asked the Lord last night at church that if you were supposed to be my husband, to get you a job today, and to get it in the field of computers so you could start a career.” I remember my knees going weak, and stumbling for a second. I was overwhelmed. I was totally amazed, that God had done this thing to answer her prayer that I didn’t even know she had prayed. We laughed together and I thought to myself “Well, I guess that answers that.” More confirmation. Incidentally, that job started as a 3-month stint, but they extended it to 6-months because they liked my work. Serrell had prayed for it to be a start to a career. After we were married, I finished up at IBM and God opened the door for a permanent job as a computer support analyst, which was the start of my career.

Fleece 2 – The Bear

I started the job in August of that year, and a month or so later we started choosing our dishes and silverware at a department store at the mall. We started down the escalator from the second to the first floor, and my eye was caught by a huge display of teddy bears, almost to the ceiling. I remarked to Serrell at the sight. There were all sizes and shapes of bears – from handheld size to almost lifesize and every size in between. I thought to myself, “I’m going to get her one for Christmas.” I don’t know why other than I thought she might like one. My eye went to the bear I thought would be the perfect one. Leading her by the hand I walked to the counter, told the saleslady which specific one I wanted. Serrell said “Bill, are you sure? Can we afford that?” It didn’t matter – I was getting it for her. “ I’ll put it on lay away.” Serrell still looked at me like maybe I shouldn’t be buying it, but then smiled a big smile and said “OK.” Later that day she said “I have to tell you something…” “What…” I asked. “Well… a long time ago, back when I was really praying for God about being married and who my husband should be, I asked for a sign to let me know it was him. And I asked for a bear somehow – it could even be a picture, or something besides a real bear, but a bear in some form to let me know he would be the one. And about a week ago, that sign had not been fulfilled, and I asked the Lord why it hadn’t been fulfilled, if Bill was supposed to be the one.”Again, I was floored. I started laughing – just incredibly amazed that here God was answering her prayer – even one she had prayed years earlier. Not only that, she told me I had picked the very one she wanted, without knowing it. I gave her the bear for Christmas, that year, and it remains in our bedroom to this day as a reminder – The Bear of Promise.

Fleece 3 – To Ski or not to ski

Later that month we were invited with some friends to spend a weekend at a friend’s house at Oriental, NC, on the Neuse River, near the coast. Our host had a big old three-story house right on the river and they had a boat they used there. The second day we were there, we all decided to go out on the boat and we’d do some water skiing. I was 23 at the time. Ever since I was 15 I had tried many times to get up and stay up on water ski’s but had never been able to successfully ski. I told Serrell this, but she said “Come on, let’s go – don’t worry about it”. So we were all in the boat with our host’s son driving. He pulled a friend of ours, Peter, and then Peter drove while pulling him. Then they told me to give it a try. I said OK, I’m willing. I put the skis on and was determined to give it the best try. The boat started up and I tried to remember everything I ever learned about positioning myself, to let the boat pull me up of the water and to slowly stand. It was the easiest launch I had ever had, and before I knew it I was skiing. It was amazing, I even weaved a little back and forth. I was being pulled at full speed and it was like I had done it before, even tho it was my first time. When it was over I climbed back in the boat and sat beside Serrell. Later that evening Serrell told me “I was praying in the back of the boat, that if you were supposed to be my husband, that you’d ski.” Wow. I was speechless. I remember thinking later… “How many times does she want God to prove it to her.” I told her later that three times was enough – God will help our unbelief, but don’t push it.

So there in a nutshell, is the account of how God unmistakably confirmed to us that we were to be husband and wife. Now, almost 30 years later, I can’t imagine life without her. She is truly my other half, as I am hers. Marriage is to be a lifetime commitment, and God wants us to get it right.