By Claudia Lancaster
Only God could orchestrate the last seven months of my life. You see, I was in a difficult marriage for 48 years to a man who battled anger most of his life. He lost his Dad when he was five years old and then was sexually abused by his stepfather. As a Christian, he struggled for years to get free from the lies of the enemy. Not until three years before his death, did he (and I) finally get healing prayer which brought more peace and victory than ever before.
My husband died from an unexpected heart attack about 3 years ago and suddenly at the age of sixty-eight I was a widow. The Lord became my refuge, peace and even joy in those days of adjusting to being alone and single. I was active in my church as the pianist, attended Bible studies, and was blessed to pray with some very powerful prayer warriors. My two sons lived close by and three grandsons were almost all adults so I rarely saw them anymore. My attitude was such that I had resigned myself to stay single and be free to serve the Lord however He led. In fact, I never prayed for a husband, but often said that I would only consider marriage if God dropped a very special man into my life.
It was several days after Resurrection Sunday last April, when I had a vivid dream. I dreamt that a tall man dressed in white medical scrubs, came to my front door and said he wanted to meet and talk with me. I didn’t open the door, but I responded, “Maybe tonight or tomorrow.” Then he left and the dream ended.
In the morning when I was reading my Bible, I remembered the dream and realized that the man was my high school sweetheart. We had “gone steady” for two years at a Christian High School but were separated after graduation when we went to different colleges far apart. I knew that he was happily married to the girl he met in college, so was puzzled about why in my dream he was at my door. So I pondered and prayed for a while, then went to my laptop and googled his name and the state where I believed he lived. His name came up on the first line and just beneath his, was his wife’s obituary.
Through tears, I read her obituary and felt that the Lord wanted me to reach out to him. I looked back at his information and saw two different email addresses so started composing an email explaining the dream, and how I learned of his wife’s passing, and my husband died almost three years before. Not knowing if he would even receive my letter, I offered condolences and gave him my cell phone number if he ever wanted to talk. The next morning he called and we talked for three hours! Our old friendship started to rekindle old feelings and we began talking, texting and zooming. Although, he was still in the midst of grieving, and was confined at home because of COVID, having me to talk and share with helped him better deal with his loneliness.
A couple months after we began talking I flew to visit my sister who lives about an hour from him and we had two lunch dates together in an effort to get to know each other better. He wasn’t quite ready for a serious relationship since it had only been seven months since his wife had died but shortly after I flew home to Texas, we began to talk more seriously about the future.
I was sure God had planned our lives to reconnect and had to trust God’s timing. The fact that we both love to worship and each of us even sang “Because He Lives” on our separate worship teams the week before the dream was confirmation! He is so kind, thoughtful, transparent and loving. He believes as a husband he is to love his wife more than himself. Submission should be mutual and he sees marriage as a loving partnership. Also, because of his great love for God and his faithful service to the Lord for all these years, he was determined to make sure that we were in God’s perfect will before proposing. This is something I am truly grateful for. So now I am excited to say we plan to marry in February at his (our) church and become a prayer team serving the Lord however He leads!
Before I close this story, I want to share that even more than finding a man to love again who knows how to truly love his wife, God used a dream to break through a wall in me that was keeping me from receiving His love! The tough wall of protection I had built around myself for years was quickly shattered when I realized a good man loved me and I now am truly overwhelmed and overflowing with the knowledge of the goodness and love of the Lord.
In His Love, Claudia