Ruth's Redeemer Series

Ruth’s Redeemer

Book of Ruth

Rev. Brian Bill

2/11/07

Don and Donna Tuley are in our small group and recently shared the story of how God brought them back together after they had been divorced from each other. I asked Donna to write out her perspective of how God weaved His purposes through some seemingly unconnected events.

Don and I had been divorced for about two years. He was working for a motel chain, traveling in different parts of the country and I was living in Minnesota. I decided to take a summer vacation to Colorado with two friends…I had a navy blue car that I had bought from a car rental place at the airport in Minneapolis which had a bright yellow spare wheel. We discovered a problem with one of the tires while we were on the trip and put that spare on the car. One of my friends had a sister living in Springfield; so on our way home we came through Springfield and stayed overnight there.

In the morning when we were getting ready to leave, I felt strange...like something was “up.” We had planned to leave precisely at 8:00 and things kept happening to delay us. I was frustrated and nervous, but I didn’t know why. We planned to get to Hoffman Estates…by supper time and visit with my parents who lived there at the time. Since I-55 comes right by Pontiac, we took a detour into town so I could show them Pontiac Bible Church and the house I had lived in with my parents in Illini subdivision. We drove by the church, which was still at the old building on Chicago Street, and continued out to the subdivision. I pulled in the driveway of the house in Illini, backed out and went back up the street. Much to my chagrin, there was Don coming toward us. In my heart I realized that is why we were delayed in leaving Springfield in the morning. God had wanted me to run into Don, even though I had no idea he was in the area.

I had been to a seminar where God had convicted me about getting back together with Don, but I was fighting Him, not ready to submit to what I knew was right. The speaker had said, “Even if you think you have married the wrong person, God wants to use that person to make you Christ-like.” Ouch. I wasn’t very pleasant to Don that day on the street, but we did have a short conversation and I agreed to let him come to my parent’s home that evening to talk… Don let me unload on him all the things that had hurt me in our relationship, and he didn’t try to defend himself, or poke back at me. I saw a change in him that I later found out was the result of his submission to God. He had realized that God wanted first place in his heart, and then He would “see” about putting us back together. It was the beginning of our reconciliation, and we were re-married that September at my parent’s home...by Pastor Stan Wiedeman, the youth pastor here at PBC.

There had to be precise, perfect timing for Don to have seen that blue car with the yellow wheel that day. Don had also felt unrest that morning. In those days there were two separate hours at PBC...one was a preaching service and the other was a sharing time where a microphone was passed around for prayer requests and testimonies. That Sunday Don didn’t want to stay for that second hour as he usually did. He hung around trying to decide what to do, when Tim [his brother] said he would take him home. That was the exact moment he came out of the church, looked up the street and saw that blue car with the yellow wheel, two blocks away, turning onto Howard Street. It turns out that two years earlier, my Mom had told Don in a letter about my purchase of the blue car with the yellow wheel. He had never seen the car till that day. He and Tim jumped into Tim’s car and tried to find me. They didn’t see us anywhere. Don asked Tim to drive out to Illini subdivision on the chance that I might be there. And there I was.

God knew every detail of our lives. He drew each of us to Himself before he drew us back together, using precise timing, job changes, vacations, friends and relatives...and a yellow wheel on the passenger side of a dark blue car.

I had an experience this week where it was very obvious that God was weaving His ways for His glory and the good of His people when He reminded me of something at just the right time. If He had not brought it to my mind at that precise moment and if I had not responded when He prompted me, I would have missed an opportunity to see Him at work. Have you ever experienced that?