Impossible Prayer

I was living and working in tropical Costa Rica in my twenties and early thirties. I loved my job, had a great team of people around me and was content…mostly. I was single, but had a desire to be married.

There were times when singleness was great and there were times when it wasn’t so great. Many of my friends had already married and I wondered when it would be my turn.

Around Christmas time one year, I had been reading through Scripture and noticing how God did the impossible. He created the heavens and the earth, He parted the Red Sea, He sent the plagues…the list of the “impossible” things He did goes on. I found myself hovering on that idea. In fact, while decorating Christmas ornaments with a group of girls, I wrote on one, “Dios hace lo imposible.” “God does the impossible.”

A few months later, I was spending time learning about faith and began to pray in such a way as to stretch my faith. I began to pray what I thought was an impossible prayer. You see, I didn’t know if it was God’s will for me to have a husband one day, but I began to pray that it was. I prayed that I would have an engagement ring on my finger by the end of the year (gasp!).

It wasn’t my style to give God deadlines, and I even told Him that if His answer at the end of the year was, “no,” I would be okay with that. I knew that this would help stretch my faith. So I began to pray my crazy prayer…and I didn’t tell ANYONE at first. It was far too crazy to share with anyone.

In the meantime, a former roommate of mine convinced me to try the online dating scene. She had met her husband through Christian Café and encouraged me to check it out. Reluctantly, I went on the site, filled out a profile and waited to see if anything would happen (not really expecting it to).

Lo and behold, I came across a profile of a guy named Juan who caught my eye. He had been born and lived in Latin America, gone to Bible school, and shared similar passions and beliefs. Hmm, it seemed like we had a lot in common. So I sent him a little note and the next thing you know, we are talking on the phone.

Our first conversation (i.e. interview) went really well. 🙂 I thought our second phone conversation was going well too until he said, “well Suzie, it’s been great getting to know you…” Wait! Was he breaking up with me? We hadn’t even started dating yet!

Then he finished his sentence, “…and I’d like to get to know you better by going down to Costa Rica and meeting you.” Wait! He wanted to meet me already? We just started talking! I was speechless! A total rarity for me.

We decided to talk on Skype first and then, six weeks later, he came down to meet me. I was excited, nervous, excited, happy, did I mention excited? I’ll never forget the shy, nervous smile on his face when we made eye contact at the airport.

Shortly after his arrival, he handed me a red rose that he had brought from the States. My romantic reply was, “how did you get that through customs?”

Though we only had a long weekend to get to know each other in person, we totally hit it off. Now, let me just remind you of the timeline here. I had been praying my crazy prayer for several months, Juan and I first started talking at the very end of July and he flew to Costa Rica in October.

I remember asking God, could he be the one? It’s getting awfully close to the end of the year God…

Juan returned to Costa Rica in November and I continued to pray. I couldn’t tell him about my crazy prayer because that would be cheating! Juan invited me to meet his family in the Chicagoland area in December.

It was during that visit Juan told me to dress up a little because we he was going to take me out to a nice place to dinner. Little did I know it was the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the Hancock building, at a table overlooking Navy Pier.

After a delicious dinner, Juan pulled out a little black box and started to say something like, “this has been such an amazing journey…”. He continued to say some really sweet things (most of which I can’t remember because all I could think about was the fact that he was PROPOSING!).

Then he came over to my side of the table, opened the box (which lit up!) and there inside was a gorgeous engagement ring! Simultaneously I heard him say, “will you marry me?”

Smiling from ear to ear, face beaming, heart pounding, I eagerly said, “YES!”

I then told him about the “impossible” prayer I had been praying and how God had just answered it!!! Juan was speechless. He later told me he was planning to propose until after the first of the year but had felt “compelled” to do it then. That word always makes me think of the Holy Spirit.

The wait staff brought out a white plate with a martini glass filled with sorbet and a candle. On the plate was written in chocolate, “congratulations on your engagement!” After our celebratory dessert, we took a romantic carriage ride around the city, both still in awe that God had answered my prayer and we were engaged!

And so began our happily ever after.

I share this story with you because I want to remind you that God answers prayer. We talk a lot about “dream big,” and I think that’s great, but what would happen if we “prayed big”? I think with that posture of prayer, if we prayed more “impossible” prayers, we’d see God do more impossible things and we would be radiant beyond our imagination.