Fred never asked me to marry him!
He never got down on one knee and produced a sparkling ring in a little purple box.
He never planned a day out beside a beautiful waterfall or wrote a bunch of short letters to guide me to a certain place so that he could ask me that specific question.
He didn't contact his mother and father and ask them to keep an engagement ring safely hidden until a special birthday would arrive.
He didn't contact his future mother-in-law to show her the ring he was planning to get.
No Fred never did anything like that.
He didn't even take a specific time to ask me to marry him.
With Fred it was just taken for granted.
When Fred talked about the future there was no "IF" but just the "WHEN".
You see Fred was sure that he loved me and he was also sure that I loved him so there didn't need to be an "IF we get married" it was automatically "WHEN we get married".
And me?
Well I just agreed with him because I loved him and I knew that he loved me.
Fred had decided he loved me before we even started going out together and in his mind that would mean there would be no-one else for him and it would just be the natural thing for us to get married.
We did not have that
"getting down on one knee in a beautiful surrounding with a friend hidden somewhere ready to step forward and take a picture at just the right moment as the ring is produced"
moment to be forever remembered.
No we had none of that and as our kids know Fred is often reminded of the fact that he did not propose to me at all!
Instead he just started talking about "when we get married".
Well of course that is all in the past and we did get married 41 years and two days ago. The "WHEN" happened and Fred had been true to his word there was no going back on what he had said.
I have always been able to trust what Fred would say because if he meant something he said it and stuck with it but if he wasn't completely sure then the "IF" would be used.
And because of the proof I have already seen with Fred, I know that I will also be able to trust him in the future. Just as the "I have trusted Fred" and the "I am trusting Fred" led me to say "I Will" 41 years ago.
These qualities that I see in Fred are the qualities that I have also seen in God.
God doesn't start talking about "IF" something will happen in the future, it is all "WHEN" with Him.
All God's promises are not statements about how something might come to be but instead each one is a definite fact.
God has proved himself throughout Scripture and Time so that we can trust in all that He says.
God has never promised anything He did not intend to do, He always speaks the truth and will never go back on His Word.
This means we can trust Him forever.
Some people will use the phrase "IF and WHEN....."
But does that even make sense?
I would not be inclined to trust in anything that followed those three words.
With God we trust
the "I Have"
& the "I Am"
& the "I Will"
We have trusted in Him, we are still trusting in Him and we will continue to trust in Him.
Throughout our lives together Fred & I have enjoyed the "Our Stories & His Stories" because we have trusted God and shared our lives with God.
