Our Paths Were Destined

Our paths were destined to meet…

My first post was about being married to my non-Christian husband.  I received a lot of grief when we decided to be together, but many events in our lives, I think , were hints from God that He had planned for us to meet, for our lives to cross.  Whether we chose to be together or not, that was God giving us free-will.  (If you never watched “God’s not dead”, I highly recommend watching it.  It gave me better knowledge on how to refute Evolution [vs. Creation] and about free-will.)

Why were we destined to meet?  Because of our backgrounds:

1. When I attended UC Davis, I heard about Semester-at-Sea.  Not many people are aware of this program where college students are able to study abroad on a ship for one semester and see the world at the same time.  [You didn’t know either, did you?]  But I heard about this program and wanted to apply.  Never got the chance though because my parents would not have allowed it.  What I didn’t know was that my husband’s father worked on that vessel, as head of cabin crew.  He would often approach the Asian students and build friendships with them.  I’m sure we would have met if I went.
2. My husband’s sister moved to the bay area during the time we were here.  They owned a hotpot restaurant in Fremont at the very old Ranch 99 plaza off of Fremont Blvd.  During that time, there were not that many Asian plazas.  Our family actually went to that restaurant and his sister remembers meeting a family with twin sisters.  It could have been us.
3. My maternal grandfather loved playing mahjong.  I am aware that he often held mahjong games at his residence on Zhonghua Road near Taipei Botanical Garden.  My husband’s mom often played mahjong and frequently visited that area.  He remembers going to that neighborhood often with her but never stayed because he doesn’t like mahjong.  When he first met my grandfather, he said he looked familiar, like he’s seen him before.  Of course he was quite young at the time, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did meet.

When we first met and when I was contemplating whether to date him or not, I struggled a lot.  I sought counsel from some close friends.  One dear brother’s advice stuck to me,  he said “choosing your life-long companion is such an important decision that we need to strive to place God at the center of our desires and make sure that his desires are our desires. but we also need to acknowledge that God is in control… he doesn’t let us go far enough to let us screw up his plan… he is in control and he does what he knows is right. so feel assured that if God wants you both to be together, you can trust God will bring you both together.  God is in much greater control than we give him credit for.”

I agree I might not have heeded his advice to make God’s desire my desire, but I do not regret my decision.  I would like to think God already knew which way I would go and probably shook His head and sighed, but He still let me go that way, because He loves me and gives me a choice.  But He still has me walking in His plan.

In the end, we started dating and eventually got married.  (This is a story saved for another time.)

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. (Proverbs 16:9 ESV)