On Friday, I told the story of how God guided me from the university I was attending as a student in Michigan, USA, to becoming the French teacher at a university in eastern Washington. What I didn’t realize at the time was just how intricate God’s plan for my life really was, and how moving to Washington State was such a vital part of that plan… But perhaps I should back up a little with this story…

When I was young I heard my Father saying that He had someone special for me. He even showed her face to me in a dream. I had no idea who she was, but I would never forget that face. Then, about the same time I received the job offer to teach French at the university in Washington State, I again heard from my heavenly father on the subject of my future wife: He was going to guide me to someone from Los Angeles…

That didn’t make much sense to me. After all, I hadn’t been offered a job in California, but in Washington State! 

About the same time I arrived at the university, a young lady and her brother also arrived. She was to begin her final year. She happened to be taking a minor in German, and was hoping to take a French class as an elective. She had spent a year in Austria learning German, and had also learned some French while in Switzerland. She was good friends with the one who would be my new boss, the German teacher. 

When the German teacher learned this young lady and her brother were in town, he invited them over for lunch. During the course of the lunch conversation, the German teach began to tell the young lady all about a new French teacher that would be starting that school year. He then began telling stories of how teachers and students sometimes dated at this university, and how his own wife had been his student. The young lady had no idea what to make of this turn of the conversation, but in the end, she bid her teacher and her brother good-bye and began moving into her new apartment. 

Back in those days, registration for university courses was not online as it is today. The professors had booths set up in the gymnasium, and the students had to physically visit those booths and sign up for their courses. It was in one such booth that I found myself that first registration day. I was pleasantly surprised that there were several students who wanted to sign up for my classes, and my booth was quite busy for the first hour of registration. I had a lull in students after this, and then one notable student showed up. As soon as I saw her, I recognized her as the girl from my dream. Though I wouldn’t know this until later, it was also the same young lady who had dined with my boss the day before… Should I have been surprised when I learned that her parents lived…in Los Angeles, California?

The very next day, in a meeting with my new boss, the German teacher happened to mention that it was okay to date students… 

That young lady and I became friends. We began dating a few weeks later, and we were married at the end of that school year — in Los Angeles, of course! Not only was God providing me with work in Washington State, but He also provided me, quite literally, with the girl of my dream.

And I have been married to that girl from Los Angeles for 35 years now, and I continue to thank God for putting our paths together.

God has a plan for each of us. Our job is to be open to His will, and we can be sure that He will do the rest.

In His love,
Rob Chaffart


(To view the entire “Lessons From the Classroom” devotional series, please click here.)