Winter mornings in Michigan were often cold and bleak, especially now that I was getting up earlier than usual to pray. The quiet time with God helped keep me inspired at my job as an elementary school teacher.
Some mornings, though, waking up in the dreary darkness, I couldn’t help but wish I had someone to wake up with. I loved my job, but more than anything I hoped to be a wife and mother. So far I hadn’t met the right guy.
“Lord, you promise that if we delight in you, you’ll give us the desires of our heart,” I said aloud. “I have delighted in you, so…when?”
The room was silent. Seemingly out of nowhere a Bible passage popped into my mind: “I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Isaiah 49:15-16.
God? I thought. Could it be that he was speaking directly to me? As I opened my daily scripture book, the lesson for the day caught me by surprise. It was Isaiah 49:15-16–the passage that had popped into my head! It seemed like God really was speaking to me, and yet…
Lord, I don’t want to be a doubting Thomas, but if you truly are encouraging me with these words, could you say them once more?
That afternoon I swung by the house of one of the ladies in my prayer group. We were trying something different, each of us choosing someone in the group to pray for anonymously, encouraging her with notes and small gifts. I stealthily dropped a little something in my friend’s mailbox.
When I got home I found a gift in my own mailbox. My secret prayer buddy had been by! It was a pewter pin shaped like a hand, and in the hand was a little child. The card with it contained a short Bible passage. Isaiah 49:15-16.
Less than two years later I met the man who would be my husband. Together we’re raising four wonderful children. But the truth is, I found love before I met my husband, when God reached down and–three times–reminded me I was not forgotten.
