Sitting in the bleachers, I’m beginning to think I’ll be watching the game alone. That’s ok, I guess, but I didn’t really come to see the game. It’s not that I don’t like basketball. Basketball’s fine. But there’s a reason that junior-high girls basketball doesn’t air on prime time TV.
Please understand, junior-high girls’ basketball is a very interesting sport. In some ways, it’s completely unique from normal basketball. The whole team travels down the court as a pack and when the time comes to shoot, there are a lot of feet being kicked out in weird directions, a lot of arms flailing, but not a lot of baskets. It’s an interesting spectacle.
But, like I said, I didn’t really come to watch the game. I’m here for another reason.
Let me explain. It’s my senior year of college and I have a crush on a girl at the college. I like this girl, but I’m not about to do anything about it. I tell myself I don’t want to follow my feelings into something God doesn’t intend for me. But in reality, I am an overly-cautious person and not one to pursue a relationship and I’m nervous. So if it’s up to me, nothing will probably ever happen between us.
But me and this girl I’m interested in are part of the same circle of friends and one day a bunch of us are at lunch in the cafeteria, sitting at a big round table. Often, when we are free in the evening, a group of us will get together for games or just to hang out. I tell the group that (for once) I’m not working this Friday and I wonder if anyone is up for getting together.
The girl I like speaks up and says that a friend of hers is the coach of the junior-high girls’ basketball team at the Christian school on campus. To support her friend, Rebekah says she’s planning to attend the game that evening and wonders if any of us want to come along.
I’m not interested in basketball, but I am interested in Rebekah, so I say I’ll be there. Several others at the table nod and say they’ll probably show up too.
So here I am. The game is supposed to start in a few minutes and I enter the gymnasium. I look around and don’t see any of my friends, so I take a seat in the nearly-empty bleachers, hoping I’m not destined to watch this game alone. Just before the game is about to start, once I’ve nearly given up hope of any company, Rebekah shows up. She sees me and makes her way up the bleachers and she sits next to me.
My heart is in my throat and it slowly dawns on me that no one else is coming. It’s just going to be the two of us. This was not what I envisioned, but I am NOT complaining.
Bekah and I start to talk as things gear up for the game. We talk… and talk… and talk. We talk through the junior-high girls’ game and the varsity high school guys’ game that follows. As the gym empties out, we go outside and continue to talk in the cold November night. Eventually, we have to say good night, but before we part ways, I do something very out-of-character. I ask for her number… and she gives it to me.
I text that number ALL the time, because for over eight years now, Bekah has been my wife.
One fine evening, a young woman strides out of her home in the city of Nahor. She walks quickly down the street, out the gate, and toward the city well. Fetching water for her family is one of her daily chores, but as she approaches the well, she realizes that today things are a bit different. Kneeling near the well are ten camels. Camels are not an extraordinary sight in this part of the world, but it’s unusual for her to see so many of them. Next to the camels stands a well-dressed man, his hands and his eyes directed heavenward. His mouth is moving, but the young woman is too far off to hear what he’s saying.
Not knowing what to think of him, Rebekah continues on her way, descending the steps to the well, quickly filling and shouldering her water jar for the return home. As she turns towards home, the man runs enthusiastically to greet her.
“Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.” (Genesis 24:17)
Politely, Rebekah obliges, lowering her pitcher and offering him a drink. The water is welcome and refreshing to the travel-weary man and he drinks his fill. He smiles in gratitude for the cool drink, but his smile widens nearly to a laugh with the next words out of the young woman’s mouth.
“I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.” (Genesis 24:19)
This is an extraordinary offer. Before the camels drink their fill, Rebekah may have to make dozens of trips down to the well and back up to the trough where they can drink. But she does the work gladly. What she doesn’t realize is that her actions are a direct answer to this man’s prayer. He is a servant of Abraham, sent out to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac.
As he arrived at the well, the servant offered this prayer to God: “…O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.” (Genesis 24:12-14)
In a matter of days, Rebekah finds herself riding one of the ten camels, making the long journey to meet her soon-to-be husband Isaac.
Centuries later, a young widow goes out looking for work in a town called Bethlehem. She “just so happens” to find a place to harvest grain in the field of a man named Boaz. It’s no time at all and Boaz and Ruth are husband and wife.
Sometimes, odd circumstances can bring people together. Many couples have pretty unusual stories of the circumstances that led to their marrying, or going on their first date, or even meeting each other. Often, some “happy accident” has a vital part in their story. But maybe it wasn’t an accident at all. Maybe it was planned from the beginning.
My wife and I have questioned our friends, wondering if they set us up on that date. After all, a couple of my friends knew I was interested in her so maybe they meant for us to be the only two at that game. But they swear it wasn’t them. They claim they didn’t show up because they forgot we had talked about getting together that evening. Still, I think someone set us up. I think that date was arranged by God. I’m not just being sentimental when I say that I truly believe that God brought us together.
Proverbs 18:22 says, “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.”
I think it’s fair to apply that truth to both wives and husbands, but what’s really interesting to me is the fact that what we look at in terms of “finding”, God looks at as His “favor”. In His time and His way, He has a way of bringing people together. His way might involve a chance encounter; it might even involve camels or junior high basketball.
Someday, as my kids start to think about dating and marriage, I plan to tell them the story of our first date and remind them that, as hard as it might be, they don’t need to stress about it. God’s got it under control. Even boring old me with my lack of initiative found God leading me right where He wanted me to be into a lifelong relationship with the most wonderful woman in the world.
Just like everything else in our lives, these things don’t happen by accident. During those times in our lives when we are searching – whether it’s for a spouse, a job, a church, or even a life calling – we can take heart because God knows how to bring it all together. He has it all under control. There are no accidents with God.
Exempla 