God is in this story – Part 2, The dress

I will thank You, LORD, among all the people. I will sing Your praises among the nations. (Psalm 108:3)

In my last blog – God is in this story – Part 1, The Ring – I talked about how my Heavenly Father preserved my sister’s diamond for decades until I met my soulmate and needed an engagement ring. 

A few weeks before David and I even considered rings, I met with my best friend, Didi, to share the good news of my engagement. I knew I had to tell Didi my story in person, so we arranged to meet at her house at the first opportunity.

After detailing my story, I intended to ask Didi to be my Maid-of-Honor at the wedding. Before I could do so, she jumped up from her stool and exclaimed, “I have a dress! I have a dress!” 

As surprised as I was at her announcement, I wanted Didi to hear my request. “I’m not done with the story yet!” I laughed. “Sit back down and hear the rest of it!” 

After hugging and confirming her consent to join my wedding party, Didi jumped up in excitement again. “I have a dress! I have a dress!” 

Before I could stop her, my friend ran to her garage and returned with a zipped garment bag with the most beautiful dress I’d ever seen. 

“It’s from Bulgaria,” Didi explained. “My father brought it to me. I didn’t know what I’d do with it but thought maybe Sasha (Didi’s daughter) might wear it someday.” 

As Didi explained, her father still lives in Bulgaria. He surprised her with the dress years ago. His unexpected transportation of Didi’s former gown may have surprised her when he first presented it, but that could hardly match my shock of seeing a wedding dress come out of my friend’s garage. It even boasted a veil and crinoline.  

“It’s gorgeous,” I exclaimed. “I don’t know if it will fit – but it’s amazing! I can’t believe you had this in your garage.” 

“You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to,” Didi demurred. “But you can’t even find a dress like this here. It was handmade and hand beaded. If you like it, you can wear it in your wedding!”

“I love it,” I affirmed. “It’s absolutely stunning!” 

“Try it on,” Didi pressed. “I think it will fit you.” 

Without hesitation, I tried on the perfect offering in shock and amazement at my heavenly Father’s provision. 

Miraculously, it fit!

“I can’t believe it!” I kept saying as Didi took pictures of me smiling in the dress – my face filled with joy at the incredulity of it all. 

“This is incredible,” I said. “God is so good! I can’t believe you had a wedding dress in your garage – and that it fits!” 

“You look beautiful in it,” Didi gushed. “It was meant to be.”

And so, I now have one more God-ordained component to add to my story. My Creator brought two strangers together in hurricane relief work and prompted my soon-to-be spouse to forget his lunch on the very day I had extra food to share. 

Two days later, God placed the notion in my head to ask needy homeowners to tear down their kitchen wall – leading me to David, the wall-breaker. Little did I know then that David would eventually tear down my psychological barriers, as well.  

That milestone achieved, my Creator brought me back to FL to help in the home where David would ultimately propose. 

The next morning, we returned to serve with Samaritan’s Purse, precisely two months to the day when we first met. I had planned our service day together long before David’s proposal was even a thought.  

And yet God knew how significant that day would be. 

The following week, I remembered my gifted diamond that would inevitably become the symbolic stone of my engagement. My sister had given it to me while she still lived in Fort Myers – the city where David and I were to meet by divine providence decades later. 

And then came my dress gift from God – perfectly preserved in my friend Didi’s garage. My Heavenly Father knew I would require it someday, so He compelled an earthy father to bring it from Europe for me. Although no one understood until now why the wedding dress was here, God knew I’d need it. In His omniscience, He provided a gown for me years before Hurricane Ian hit Florida and led me to serve with Samaritan’s Purse, let alone meet David.

And as unlikely as it seems, despite our size differences, Didi’s handmade dress fits me perfectly.

Step by step, God has demonstrated that He is not just in our story. His fingerprints are all over my life. No one could ever convince me otherwise. 

And so, I will continue to recount my miracles to anyone I can – the jewelers, my friends, everyone coming to our wedding, the clerk in the county marriage office we met on Valentine’s Day (another story entirely), the pilot that brought David and I back together again on the holiday, my new doctor, all the clerks at Hobby Lobby who helped us find church decorations, my bosses and co-workers – and now all of you. I can’t stop talking about my miracles!

So, you see, God is in this story. 

Even more, our Heavenly Father oversees all our stories – even when we don’t see or feel Him. There’s no moment He hasn’t already foreseen. He is right there with us through our trials and triumphs, our challenges and victories.

I feel God’s power over my life in a whole new way. I know that God loves me and has given me my heart’s greatest longing – His unconditional, unwavering, unearthly love, all wrapped up in the earthly body of a man named David. 

Let my story strengthen your faith, beloved. Let it remind you that God knows what will happen in our lives, even before birth. If I can find my soulmate in the aftermath of a hurricane, a handmade European wedding dress in a friend’s garage, and a diamond in a long-forgotten box sent by my deceased sister decades earlier – there is nothing our Creator can’t do.

God knows you, beloved. He longs to bless you, give you hope, and a future (Jer. 29:11). Surrender to Him and let Him shower you with blessings as He has me. Our God can do anything. Let my story show you how very true that is. His fingerprints are all over your life – just as they are mine. 

[Note: I will post a picture of my beautiful wedding dress here after my wedding on March 12^th. Stay tuned!]