Consider those blessed

I met a couple named David and Trisha last weekend. He had been married for 22 years when his wife left him for another man, so that he had to raise four children alone. Trisha had been married for four years when her husband left her to marry another woman. She supported herself by teaching piano lessons for the next 13 years and was not interested in looking for another husband. David, in turn, was content to quietly serve in the church.

Mutual friends of theirs got a matchmaking gleam in their eyes and thought the two might make a good couple. David and Trisha reluctantly agreed to meet, dated for five months, and have been married for 15 years. David retired from his job doing mechanical and electrical work and got into volunteering for a truck stop chapel ministry called Transport for Christ.

There are some advantages to getting older after all. It gives you a track record with God. It is almost enough time to demonstrate some of the truths of the Bible---like the faithfulness of God, the blessings of patience, and something about "what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived."

If I had met Trisha---or David---20 years ago, it would have been very different. I would have drawn wrong conclusions about God and about life. I would have seen only the middle of their story and not the joyful end that God was already planning. How often do we despair just a little too soon---just before God was about to do something wonderful? I sat in their worship service in the Chapel trailer, and it did not escape me as Trisha was David's piano accompanist that not one thing in their past had been wasted.

"We consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful" (James 5:11).

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