Waiting for love

Jemimah Wright met and married her husband in six months, after years of waiting, aged 44.

Alister and I met and married within six months in 2021. Our marriage was nothing short of miraculous given that we were in COVID lockdown, and we lived in different countries. But it was also miraculous because God had been speaking to me about what he was about to do, even though in the natural it looked impossible.

My beliefs being shaken

In 2020 I moved back to my parents in Norfolk for COVID lockdown. I was 42, and feeling discouraged that my circumstances had not seemed to have changed much from my student years. My four brothers were all married with children, but I was still single. I had been living in a tiny room in a shared house in London; I didn’t have a family or a home of my own.

I am aware these things are not rights, they are privileges, and when we come to Christ, we lay down our lives and surrender to his will. However, when it seemed everyone else was getting the blessing I was praying for, I had to fight to stay soft-hearted and not let disappointment embitter my heart. I knew God was still good, even though my circumstances were trying to make me believe a different story.

I had seen God provide miraculously for me over the years in my work as a freelance journalist and author, but, in the area of my love life it felt like he was against me, as nothing worked out.

I have written several missionary biographies, and there will always be a page or a chapter where it looks like God is not there, that he has forgotten, but he always comes through, and is always faithful and always good. I used to tell people that again and again, but it felt like my very words were being tested. Did I really believe God was good when it seemed he was ignoring the deepest desire of my heart?