Chapter 24
In January 1995, I dated a wonderful woman, thinking we would marry. Many prophetic words had been given to me about marriage and all seemed to point to her as my bride…or at least, I thought so.
I spoke aloud to the Lord one night while driving my truck home from the lady’s apartment.
“Jesus, You need to get us married as quickly as possible,” I said.
My truck cab instantly filled up with laughter, as if heaven dropped an amplifier and speaker into my truck, turning it up full blast. The laughter was the “hold your belly and roll on the floor” type. And it continued and continued.
I pulled my truck over to the side of the highway because the contagious laughter caused tears to run down my cheeks. I turned on the truck’s hazard blinkers and sat there, laughing along with heaven.
It finally ceased and I resumed driving home. I then wondered, is the Lord laughing because He knows something, which I don’t know yet. Or is He just happy for me?
I ignored the former and opted for the latter.
One obstacle after another frustrated our relationship over the next fourteen months. I figured more fasting and prayer would eventually break the logjam of spiritual warfare thwarting our relationship.
Tony and his girlfriend Janelle set their wedding date in March 1996. They asked me to perform the ceremony. A dinner at our two-bedroom apartment was arranged, inviting the people involved in the wedding, which included a mysterious woman named Carol.
Janelle mentioned Carol was her spiritual mom, but I gave little thought to her words. I answered the knock on the door, expecting a frumpy woman to be standing there, but instead, a cute blond looked me in the face. We introduced ourselves and sat down for dinner. Carol was pretty, but my mind was still focused on the other woman.
After the meal, we had a time of fellowship. Somehow, Carol ended up praying for everyone. I looked toward her while she prayed and what I glimpsed in a nano-second changed my life. I saw the woman who would soon be my wife. Not only that, but I was smack-dab, head over heels, instantly in love with her.
I spoke with Tony and Janelle after everyone left.
“I’m in love with Carol.”
They laughed and confessed how the Lord had given each a vision about Carol and me getting married. They prayed for months for us to be a couple.
“But the Lord told us not to say anything to you,” said Tony, “because the Lord said Larry is so stubborn he’ll do just the opposite.”
Janelle gave me Carol’s phone number and I phoned her.
“What have you done to my life? It’s turned upside down,” I said.
She laughed and admitted she missed her exit on the way home, thinking about me.
We planned to meet on the next night.
Our date turned out to be a pizza and movie night at the apartment, but we spent most of the time asking and answering each other’s questions. We planned a second date for the following evening.
The next morning during my prayer time, the Lord directed me to write a marriage proposal to Carol. As silly as that may seem, Carol did a similar thing in her apartment, thirty miles away.
She called at 9 a.m.
“Why don’t we get together right away?”
“Good idea,” I said.
An hour later, we met at the door and became engaged. Both of us knew the Lord wanted us to marry. So, why wait?
We talked over our wedding plans later that day.
“When do you think we should get married?” she asked.
“What are you doing tomorrow?”
Carol gave me one of her “are you kidding me” glances.
“Larry, we have to be serious. This is important.”
“Okay, sorry.”
“I’m thinking about a specific date, but it involves an anniversary in my life. What do you think?”
“You are not going to believe this,” I said.
“What?”
“While painting last July, I felt the Lord spoke to my heart and said, ‘You will be married on an anniversary.’ Then, that evening a Christian neighbor named Dan walked over to the apartment to tell me how he had been at a drug store and saw an anniversary card. He felt it would be important to me sometime in the future.”
Both of us laughed at how the Lord had confirmed our marriage and wedding date.
We married four weeks later on Good Friday, April 5, 1996.
Wouldn’t you think that because the Lord endorsed our marriage and brought us together, we would have smooth sailing and no problems at all? Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
(The above is taken from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who, published as an eBook on Amazon, © 2014 by Larry Nevenhoven)
Larry Who 