"I distinguish the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come, saying: 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'" Isaiah 46:10
"What would you do if you knew tomorrow's news today? If you knew the winning lottery numbers? Could rescue people from accidents and certain death? That's what Gary Hobson (Kyle Chandler) asked himself every day... Hobson becomes a reluctant hero when he is delivered the news a day in advance." - Early Edition - The First Season, DVD.
When Early Edition first aired on television in 1996, it was an entertaining show to watch. However, what if you knew not only a day into the future but 637 days? Imagine knowing when you'd be married, even though at the time, you weren't dating anyone and hadn't been in a relationship in over seven years. What sounds impossible happened to me. In three subsequent posts, I share the full account of this miraculous experience. The post titles and their dates are as follows: (1) Beyond Believing (Nov. 2, 2019), (2) Mission Impossible (Dec. 4, 2019), and (3) Mission More Impossible (Jan. 29, 2020). In the remainder of this post, I'll summarize not only what happened but also how God providentially directed my past to fulfill my future.
Tallahassee, Florida - On December 8, 1990, God spoke three words to me during a near-death experience (NDE): "Look and remember." In that transcendent moment while out of my body, I was shown various symbols. The first was a turning, illuminated digital clock face displaying the time 11:21 a.m. When the NDE concluded, I understood through prophetic revelation that I would be married when the clock reached high noon. Each minute on the clock represented a specific number of days in my life. With this knowledge, I calculated the number of days until noon and determined that I'd be married in approximately 637 days. Yet, pressing questions remained: When would I meet my future wife, and how would I recognize her?
Later that day, I shared my NDE with my parents and provided my mom with the marriage calculations. She believed I had experienced a spiritual event but wasn't about to start planning the wedding without a bride. She cautiously waited to see what would unfold. My then-agnostic dad remained uncertain about what to believe. However, fate had other plans: he would later become a believer after serving as best man at my wedding.
In my quest to find my future bride, I began attending a singles/college-age Sunday school class at Celebration Baptist Church. The class was taught by the pastor's wife, Ruthie Garrard. Among the class members, there was a single girl whom I thought might be the one. Unfortunately, my dilemma was that every eligible girl seemed like a potential match. How could I discern the right one? As fate would have it, the girl I had my eye on turned out to have a boyfriend, and they were soon engaged. I'd spent weeks of precious time searching, only to find myself back at square one.
In the spring of 1991, I invited my pastor, Jerry Garrard, to visit me at my house. During our conversation, I shared the details of my NDE and described the symbols I had witnessed. I also handed him a copy of my marriage calculations. Prior to this, I had confided in him about a vivid dream from years earlier - a dream that led me to believe I would someday meet my wife at Celebration. Having met with Jerry, I began informing my co-workers at the Florida Attorney General's Office, Bureau of Victim Compensation, when I was going to be married. The catch? I still hadn't found my bride-to-be. Understandably, they thought I was crazy.
With no other prospects at my church, I decided to visit Thomasville Road Baptist Church. I had heard they had a larger singles group. One Sunday, I attended their service and met several nice girls in class. However, I also decided to explore First Baptist Church, which is near the Florida State University campus. The following Sunday, I walked into First Baptist and couldn't believe my eyes. The two girls I had met the previous Sunday were both there. Their surprise mirrored my own. Cindy, an FSU college student, greeted me with a big smile. Could this second encounter be more than mere coincidence? Was she the one I was searching for? After the service, I invited her to lunch, but she had other plans. Undeterred, I returned the following Sunday and repeated my invitation. Once again, she had a valid excuse not to join me. She then informed me that she'd be leaving for the summer, but assured me of her return in the fall.
I waited all summer and when I finally saw her again, I hoped that this time she'd say "yes" to a lunch date. But she responded with a firm "no!" While I wasn't devastated, I was surprised. Instead of giving up, though, I surrendered in a different way. Not the defeated kind of surrender, but the type that involves giving it all to God, trusting his plan. After all, it was His design from the beginning, and He would need to work out the details. I vividly recall going home, dropping to my knees, and praying through tears, pleading with Him.
I reminded God of His promise to me and that I believed Him. I reminded Him about Adam's loneliness and how He had created Eve as a helper, companion, and spouse. It was the first marriage in the Bible, and He had promised me a wife too. I too was lonely, like Adam had been. He knew this and was about to work the greatest miracle of my life! I returned to Celebration Baptist Church and waited for the Lord to work out His plan with the full assurance that He always fulfills His promises. He is always faithful, and I put all my trust in Him to finish what He started. Then, I stepped out in faith and continued telling my co-workers when I was going to be married, even though I had a lot less time for a miracle to happen. I only had about a year left. Now, I'll let my wife Sharon tell you what happened next. The following is from a page of her personal diary.
Wednesday - January 1, 1992: "I just got home from the best night of my life. It is new year's day now & I am happier than I've ever been. On Dec. 8, 1991, I met Bob Haas at Celebration Baptist. We've gone out several times since. He is everything I've wished and prayed for. He is a Christian, kind and gentle and we really like one another. I know he is the man I will spend the rest of my life with."
Monday - February 10, 1992: "Bob & I have grown so close. Saturday I took him to Bristol & showed him around town & B-town (Blountstown). He enjoyed seeing where I grew up. I am in love with Bob and he's in love with me. Tonight he called me over to his house and gave me this penny & a necklace he got several years ago. Then he proposed to me & I immediately said Yes. We'll get married in September. I can't wait to start the rest of my life with Bob."
When Sharon and I first met, it was exactly one year to the day of my NDE. It was on December 8, 1990, that I saw the clock that foretold my marriage. I met the love of my life on December 8, 1991, on the front steps of Celebration Baptist Church. We were married there on October 3, 1992. God kept His promise! Did He ever!!! He knows the end from the beginning.
The beginning of my long journey to find Sharon actually began in 1972. I was only twelve years old and in my second year of sixth grade. My prior post, Dial L for Lonely, described how devastated my life had been after moving to Lincoln, New Hampshire. I'd left behind the home I grew up in, my best friends, and a life I loved. In my new home and school, I felt heartbroken. It wasn't just sadness, loneliness, and anger—I genuinely hated my life! I longed to turn back time and return to my real home in Wellesley, Massachusetts. But I couldn't go back; I could only move forward.
With the eventual addition of new friends, my life finally made a turn for the better. This was especially true after two girls approach me at school with a secret and a question. The secret was that Kim liked me. The question was, "Do you like her back?" I'm not sure exactly what I said, but I didn't say no. Kim was a cute girl and was very sweet. I wasn't going to say no to that combination. All this was happening just about the time I started to notice girls. I remember noticing another classmate, Laura, who had her hair curled, and she also looked cute. A year prior, I wouldn't have even noticed, remembered, or cared.
When I heard that Kim liked me, it made me surprisingly happy, and it was just what I needed after what I'd been through the year before. In a future post, I'll introduce you to other friends who helped make me feel more at home. Thanks to these new friends, the loneliness I had once felt so deeply was finally beginning to fade away. While I'm not writing a novel about what happened next, it was really all sweet and innocent. Kim and I attended a couple of dances together in Junior High and also went skiing and swimming together.
The pen and pencil set in this picture was a present that Kim gave me for my fourteenth birthday. I've kept it as a keepsake all these years to remember her—not that I'd ever forget her. She was my first love, and she will always have a special place in my heart.
The heart pendant necklace is what I bought for her. It wasn't long after I purchased it that we drifted apart, and I never had the chance to give it to her. Instead, I decided to save it for the women I would someday marry. I eventually gave it to Sharon on the day I proposed. Alongside the necklace, I also bought a special engraved penny for Kim. It's the one taped to Sharon's diary page that I've enlarged in the final picture below. It bears an inscription on the right side: a heart with the words "I love you" engraved in the middle. The coin is dated 1974.
In 1975, it was a fourteen-year-old girl who would turn my life upside down. It all began in study hall when I picked up a letter off the floor. No one claimed it, so I tossed it in the trash. But a girl sitting nearby urged me to retrieve it and read it; she thought it might be important. As I read part of the letter, I discovered that it was written by Laura—the girl with the pretty curls in 6th grade whom I had noticed. She had written to a friend, confessing her feelings for a fifteen-year-old boy. That boy was me. I felt both elated and terrified. My mind raced through various scenarios about how I could tell her that I felt the same way.
I don't recall how it all came about, but we did go on a date. It was the fall of 1975 when I picked Laura up at her house on my Kawasaki motorcycle and rode the back trails up to Loon Mountain. At one point, we sat by the river on a large rock and talked about the movie, Jaws. We had both seen it during the summer. I don't remember any other part of the conversation. Later, I drove her home, and I don't recall what was said when we parted. However, I do remember what I said the next day, and the next day, and the next day. It was basically, absolutely, nothing. I completely ignored her, and I began to hate myself for it. I was completely in love with her, and I had no idea how to handle those feelings. I wanted to tell her, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. What was stopping me?
The following picture is my 1975 report card. As you can see, I still wasn't doing so great academically. I want you to notice the "F" I received for Home Economics. Yes, I actually took that course. I enjoyed Shop class, where I made a table and lamp, but mechanical drawing was a different story. So, I dropped Shop and took Home Ec. with a bunch of girls. Thankfully, there were two other guys in the class, so I didn't feel too out of place. Unfortunately, my grade suffered because I didn't make enough cakes, pies, or whatever else I was supposed to do. My friends speculated that I took the class to be near Laura. That was half true—I loved being around her, except for one specific day, one moment in time, that I'll never forget.
If there were ever a movie about my life, this scene would undoubtedly have to be in it. I was sitting at a sewing machine, making a shirt (I botched it, by the way, and cut off too much at the bottom.) And then I remember vividly what happened next. I looked up and across another desk in front of me. Laura was looking straight at me, and our eyes met. I wanted to smile, but I couldn't. I was frozen for a moment and then just looked back down. I was so sad. What was wrong with me? Why couldn't I even give her a smile. I hated myself; I hated that moment; I hated that day. I hated that I hurt her. I wanted her to know that I loved her. What then was stopping me? It would be many years later before I'd finally have the answer to that question.
It's because God knows the end from the beginning. Take a look at these next two pictures. God had to make sure that the young boy in the left picture would someday be the man standing with his bride in the right picture.
God had to stop a relationship from starting that He knew would lead me in another direction. He would do this again, in a different and miraculous way, when I was seriously dating a girl during my freshman year of college. What God wouldn't stop me from doing is loving both Kim and Laura. I want you to see how the heart pendant traveled from the beginning to the end. So too did my own heart. I eventually gave my whole heart to my wife, but part of it includes those I have loved along the way.
The "I Love You" penny also traveled from beginning to end. I've now tried over and over to write several endings to this story and haven't had much success. I was trying to make it too complicated with a closing message from my heart. The message was actually very simple but powerful and had been staring at me the whole time. Look at what it says at the top of the penny!
The next post titled Running Away begins at:
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