Do Butterflies Wink? (Part 2)

This is the 2nd part of how God comforted me in my journey of finding love in a mate through the story of a butterfly. To read the 1st part of the story, go to the post on April 1, 2013

RECAP: After a painful breakup, my father had comforted me with this poem: “Love is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.” Then, my father had given me a silver butterfly pin with rhinestones as a very personal Christmas gift. I cherished that gift and his words in my heart for another 2 years.

So here is what happened NEXT…

In July of 1997, I met David Ormsbee. We started dating in September 1997 and were married in July 1998. The story of our meeting and courtship is a wonderful story of my heavenly Father’s sovereign hand.

You see for the prior year, maybe year and a half, I had not dated anyone and turned “my attention to other things.” Little did I know that one year and three days from meeting David, I would become his wife! 

Love came and sat softly on my shoulder.

Another “God wink” occurred in our courtship showing the caring hand of our sovereign God:

The weekend before the engagement announcement was to take place in a Chapel service at David’s work for a private Christian University, I was having second thoughts. I had been engaged twice before, my parents were divorced, and I had on the ring of a man above and beyond what I ever had asked or imagined in a Christian man. Yes ladies, the man of my dreams (not perfect), but all I could have ever hoped. I did not doubt him but myself in my ability to be a wife that would please the Lord. In the upstairs of my home with a friend waiting downstairs, I surrendered the morning of the chapel service to the Lord. I stood and thought: I can’t do this. But I heard the Holy Spirit in me say, “You are right. You cannot, but I can in you.” I asked the Lord for a scripture and he gave me:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 (NASB)

I felt His Spirit fill my heart unlike ever before. God winked, big time!!

I got ready and my friend took me to the Chapel service. They announced our engagement to seven trumpets playing; it was amazing! The president of the University closed the service with; well, you will never believe it, but yes, Philippians 4:13 - yet another “wink!” The earlier moment was enough for me, but God did this “extra” because he can! We engraved our wedding bands with this verse.

WEDDING. When my father walked me down the aisle, I pinned a small butterfly pin on his lapel just below his boutonniere. He told me later it was not fair for me to do that right before we walked down the aisle because he almost cried! I was so touched by yet another glimpse of my father’s private, well-guarded, yet tender heart.

to be continued...

by Joni Ormsbee