"When God puts a hesitancy in your heart, it's usually because he wants to do something different with your life."
Standing on the doorstep of adulthood, Peggie Coletti thanked her father for his advice, then retreated with a mixed bag of emotions to her bedroom. Her parents didn't have the money to send her to the Christian college of her dreams, and now uncertainty about the future troubled her.
Alone in her bedroom, she opened Streams in the Desert, a book of daily inspirational readings by Lettie Cowman. On the page for that day, February 5, her eyes fell on a poem based on the story of Ruth and Boaz in the Old Testament. (Ruth was a destitute widow who left her own country to care for her mother-in-law in a foreign land. There, God blessed her with marriage to Boaz, a godly, wealthy landowner.)
What she read succinctly demonstrated how God can and does support his people in times of crisis, trial, and tragedy. One short verse from the Book of Ruth made a lifelong impression: "Sit still, my daughter."
Okay, Lord, I'm going to sit still.
Peggie stayed home and worked as a legal secretary while helping her father, a pastor of a small church in Pennsylvania. She led the church youth group, visited the sick, and directed the choir. Romances blossomed several times during her twenties, but quickly withered.
I'm going to sit still, Lord.
As she rounded her thirtieth birthday and then hit her mid-thirties, however, Peggie wondered if she would ever meet the man that the Lord wanted her to marry.
After another romantic relationship soured, Peggie turned to the Book of Ruth for more comforting words. "Lie down until the morning," she read in chapter 3, verse 13. It seemed God was telling her to rest during this period of discouragement. He was promising that joy was coming "in the morning."
On another occasion, after Peggie had received a "Dear John" missive in the mail, a retired missionary wrote her a friendly letter that finished with this statement: "My prayer for you is Ruth 1:9." The verse said, "May the Lord grant that each of you [Ruth and her sister-in-law] will find rest in the home of another husband."
Okay, Lord, I'll lie down until the morning.
A matchmaking friend tried to introduce Peggie to Joe Bohanon, a thirty-seven-year-old professor at a Christian college, but they never went out for one reason or another. Shortly afterward, however, Peggie attended a conference where she saw Dr. Bohanon. They introduced themselves and, after chatting, took seats next to each other.
At the close of the session, the speaker asked those with prayer requests to stand. Peggie had a sinus problem, but most of all, a "special unspoken need."
The speaker then inquired if those nearby could pray for their neighbor. Joe quietly prayed for Peggie, not knowing the personal nature of her "need."
Three days later, Joe called. Over the next few weeks, their friendship flourished under a parade of flowers, presents, and dinners. Within three months, Joe asked Peggie to marry him.
During their engagement, Joe and Peggie attended a breakfast meeting. The master of ceremonies, who knew Joe and had just learned of his engagement, asked Joe and Peggie to stand in the crowded conference room.
"The Lord has a word for you," he began, "and he has showed me that you, Joe, are her Boaz, and Peggie is the one prepared from the foundation of the earth to be your helpmate. A blessing will come out of this union."
At that moment, fifteen years of promises from the Book of Ruth came together in Peggie's mind. Joe, at six feet, seven inches tall, was her "tower of strength." He was sensitive to those in need, and showed a keen sense of responsibility.
Completing the "Ruth and Boaz" theme on their wedding day, Joe and Peggie decorated the church with sheaves of wheat to symbolize how God had brought them together.
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Excerpted from It's a God Thing by Luis Palau (Doubleday). Copyright 2001
Luis Palau. Permission granted to forward to family and friends. All other
rights reserved. You can read more free excerpts online at
It's a God Thing,
or request
them by writing to palau@palau.org .
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