You’re the one. No one can do it better.

By Randy Knapp

Sometimes it’s the simplest of realizations that make the biggest differences in the way I perceive my world. For the skeptic, my revelation may be meaningless or at least highly subjective. For one who believes, the insight can change the way he or she may view eternity.

It is simply this. Out of all the men in the world, in every country and in every culture, God chose me to be the husband of my wife and the father of my two sons. God could have chosen anybody, but his call came to me.

I can imagine a humorous and terrifying stereotypical picture as God plays the role of the father of my future wife. He is a very jealous father. I approach the front door to pick her up for a date. I ring the bell. God opens the door wide and looms before me with a loaded shotgun in his hands and a frown creasing his face. I know that he can see right through me. He can read me like a book and he knows what I am thinking. I stand there with hands shaking and knees knocking as he questions me in a thundering voice, “What are your intentions toward my daughter?”

But thankfully, that’s not what God did.

Six months before I was born, God watched with loving eyes as his newborn baby girl slept in her cozy pink crib. He turned to his Son and said, “I am especially fond of this one. We’re going to have to take special care to create the right man to love and care for her when she is grown.”

I was at three months gestation and still in my mother’s womb. The searching eyes of the Father and the Son found me a thousand miles distant from her crib. Their eyes met with a smile and each nodded to the other and said in unison, “He’s the one!”

It took twenty-six years for God to train me. I stumbled and fell often, but each time God encouraged me, “Get back up. We’ve got big plans for you.” Several times I lost track of God, but God still trusted me. “He’ll be back,” he would reassure his Son. When my mind was tuned to Him, God took advantage of every teaching moment. Through all my doubting, God never lost faith in me. He prodded and encouraged me. He corrected and disciplined me.

He made me into a man who could match the hour when I sat facing Patty in a hot car, on a sweltering day, in Nashville, Tennessee, and asked her to marry me. Oh, how I bungled that one. I could have picked a hundred better ways, in a thousand more romantic places to propose to her. But she said, “Yes!” And for twenty-three years God has reassured his Son that they made the right decision.

I am just blown away that God saw past all my failures and faults to see that I would be the perfect man to love His daughter. And then He trusted us both to give life to two sons! Will wonders never cease? Sometimes I’m simply bewildered at why God trusts us with such abandon. I can only conclude that He must know us better than we know ourselves.

That’s my story. Your story is no different. Only the names, and times, and places are changed. God created you to love and care for someone of whom He is especially fond. You’re the one. No one can do it better. Now, let’s love like there’s no tomorrow. God is depending on us.

Randy writes from Medford, Oregon. knappsnest@msn.com