Prologue
The Lord of creation often works in quiet ways, even when he does his greatest and most profound work. His purposes will go forward. He can take mundane or even terrible events, and turn them into something beautiful….
Shanna and Matthew knew each other nominally through film festivals. They attended several and even had a conversation or two, but if it were merely dependent on the film festivals, a relationship between the two would never be.
Shanna found herself moving away from the film world, even though she continued to enjoy friendships with filmmakers and hone her story skills. During this time she co-authored a children’s book on the life of Katharine von Bora, Martin Luther’s wife, which her sisters illustrated.
Even though Matthew now lived in the great state of Texas (nearer to Shanna!), he was still hours away from her. Texas is, after all, somewhat expansive. He, too, found himself pulled away from his interest in film as projects at his day job kept him busy.
Thus, though the two knew each other existed, they needed something other than film to bring them together.
Hurricane Harvey
In 2017, the wettest hurricane on record slammed into the Texas coast north of Corpus Christi and slowly ground its way to Houston and beyond. It tied with Hurricane Katrina for most expensive tropical cyclone, costing $125,000,000. With winds in excess of 130 miles per hour, the storm devastated large portions of Rockport and surrounding towns.
Very close by, Shanna hunkered down with her family as the eye of the hurricane swept by four miles north of their coastal house. Throughout the storm, though the powerful roar was constant and deafening, she felt a peace and even an excitement. She and her family had plans, big plans that would take lots of work, but a hurricane definitely altered those plans. As the house shook with the wind, and the ground shook with the falling trees, a verse echoed in her mind, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” The storm claimed over 100 trees on her family property, as well as their plans of marketing their children’s book, their time, and their means. And yet, as the cleanup began, she was surprised to feel a sort of peace and wonder, waiting to see what God would do.
Matthew, meanwhile, experienced a bit of rain and wind, but stayed clear of most of the bad weather. People should avoid travel during a natural disaster unless absolutely necessary. The people in the area where a storm actively spawns tornadoes and surges need to find shelter, or be rescued. People who don’t have rescuing skills or equipment should stay away lest they become victims themselves. Though Matthew had weathered several hurricanes while living in Florida, he didn’t have those rescuing skills. He watched the progress of the storm, waiting for the post-disaster cleanup. He couldn’t abandon his job, but he could leave work early on Friday and chainsaw all Saturday. The weekend after landfall the storm continued to ravage the Houston and Beaumont area, so Matthew focused his attention south of the natural disaster to where clean up was starting. Praying for a place to serve, he talked with church friends, with people on Facebook, and searched on Google. He specifically wanted to find a church, or churches that his church could come alongside and extend their local ministry. He found only one contact that first week… a filmmaker friend knew of a family who had just lost over a hundred trees….
Thus, on September 1st, 2017, the first Friday after the hurricane, God ordained that Matthew would drive to Shanna’s house. And that Saturday morning, the two found themselves working together to clear the family driveway.
Shanna’s First Impression
My first film festival impression: Matthew seemed very kind and soft spoken. He truly cared about his family; he moved his whole life from Florida back to where his grandparents lived to help them before they passed away… Who does that? I was impressed. And I didn’t think about him again, until…
First impression after Harvey: Is this guy for real? Who truly just cares about people enough to help like this? He is kind, and gentle, and isn’t afraid to get out and work and get dirty. He is cheerful and thoughtful, and truly cares about the things of the Lord. The Lord, and a love for Him, just flow out of him, like they are such an integral part of him… He’s nice. And so easy to talk to! Ok, I’ll probably never see him again…
Matthew’s First Impression
My first film festival impression: Shanna seemed cute and happy, but she was another face in the crowd. I figured that other than film festivals I’d never see her again….
First impression after Harvey: Wow. This is an amazing woman. She works hard. She hasn’t had a shower and she’s still downright lovely. She’s intelligent, home-oriented, communicates well, and is a fabulous musician! I think she fits with me in ways I never thought possible. I like her. I cannot get her off my mind.
A Courtship Begins
As Matthew drove away from that first visit, he actually began moving in a way opposite to getting to know Shanna. He thought that they connected SO well that it would be imprudent to continue helping out there. After all, she now had a driveway that was cleared, and was well connected with friends and family. She obviously didn’t need his help. Many other places had been hit hard by the storm. Matthew determined to find those other places and drown the memories of Shanna in the wreckage of Houston or Victoria.
Providentially, he had agreed to housesit the following weekend, and by the time the following weekend rolled around, Houston had been picked clean. Volunteers had inundated the area. He tried to find clean up there, but couldn’t. Pushing east to Beaumont, he ran into the same problem. Finally, in the little town of Bridge City he connected with a little church who had a little work, but they were just finishing up. After the initial cleanup, everyone was waiting for FEMA and insurance companies before rebuilding their homes and lives.
Hemmed in and Divinely prevented from helping elsewhere, Matthew had heard that the Strackbein’s still needed help. Praying that he would be a help and not a distraction (“Lord, please help me to just die to myself and serve the Strackbein’s.”), he headed back to Shanna’s house.
Shanna and her family continued carving away at the jungle that their property had become, and were thankful for any and all help that came their way. When Matthew offered to come and help again they were encouraged and grateful. They had a refreshing weekend of work and fellowship with Matthew, and as he left they felt quite blessed by this young man who was leaving them built up in the Lord… and was offering to come back to help yet again.
Matthew didn’t know if he had been any help at all that second trip, but he returned home with a fire in his heart. He called his mom, his pastor, his mentor from church, and a filmmaker who knew both of them…. and then wrote a letter to her dad. In a very short amount of time he had become convinced that God wanted him to get to know this engaging woman.
Shanna was pleasantly surprised… she hadn’t expected Matthew to declare an interest so soon, but had seen enough of his character to know that she was interested in starting a relationship with him. She was (again) impressed: his letter was so humble and transparent and she appreciated his forthrightness in honorably declaring his thoughts. So with her parents alongside her for help and guidance, she happily and hopefully agreed to begin a courtship with Matthew.
The two agreed to start slowly and test to see if a relationship would blossom…. and in the first day of talking through things they had goals and boundaries. They passed quickly from acquaintances to friends. Thus began a beautiful, slow, enthusiastic time of getting to know each other, while working together to clean up and rebuild various properties around in their area. As time went on they discovered (as they had suspected) that they fit together well.
An Uncanny Alignment
Matthew and Shanna differ profoundly in many ways. For instance, he’s a man…. and she is a woman. As another example, over the course of his life Matthew has lived in 18 residences in five states and one province in Canada; Shanna has lived in two houses… which share a back fence. And yet God has ordained that they intersect in a surprising number of ways.
To begin with, they both had recently acquired ukuleles before they met. A certain hurricane had prevented Shanna from playing hers, and Matthew had taught himself to play “Chopsticks” on his. The Saturday night after Harvey swept through, by flashlight and candlelight they learned how to play the ukuleles together.
They each grew up in close-knit families, homeschooled, learning to love history, reading classic English literature, board games, road trips, making cheesy home video dramas, and many other fun family activities. But other more difficult matters have defined them too. Matthew has gone through his share of accidents on family trips. An infamous example involved a semi kicking a chunk of metal through the family van’s windshield. Shanna, meanwhile, outdid Matthew with a drunk driver rear-ending her family van, and her enjoying a leisurely life flight to the hospital where she spent the night. In all cases, God mercifully preserved their lives. He worked in their families and in their lives using both the pleasant times and the tragic.
The wonder of Christ defines the lives of both Matthew and Shanna. This is their most important similarity. God has not merely preserved their bodies, but works His purposes in their lives. Neither of them are angelic, perfect, or even shining examples of humanity. Matthew went through an agnostic period and even now keeps bumping into areas of faith that he didn’t know existed. Shanna spent years pursuing self-absorbed, empty goals. But both have become convinced that the Creator of the universe has spoken coherently and definitively to man, and those messages and morals can be found in the Holy Bible. They love the Bible because it shows them how to live in light of God’s character. They both look to Jesus Christ, who really lived in the Middle East, but who affected the entire world without conquering armies or setting pen to paper. Instead, he lived a faultless, good life, but was killed by extremists because he claimed to be God’s son. His execution did not stop his ministry, but instead, he rose from the dead, taught before witnesses who maintained what they saw even though they were tortured to death. Jesus was prophesied as the Messiah hundreds of years before, and then through His death and resurrection, revealed to be Lord. He is Lord of every person’s life, whether they acknowledge him or not. Both Shanna and Matthew have anchored their hope in Him. Without him, they would be at best self-centered and perverse, at worst damned to everlasting punishment. Through his work in their lives, they turn from the evil they find in their hearts, and experience personal transformation, becoming more and more like Jesus, looking forward to being with him in heaven. He is the single greatest similarity they share.
An Alliance
Relationships can be difficult, and over the fifteen months of getting to know each other, they ran into challenges. They had some misunderstandings. They worked and studied through a few important differences that for a while seemed to threaten their courtship. The two experienced times when they thought their relationship would end. However, through those difficult months, they looked to their hope in Jesus. Believing that He had brought about their courtship, knowing that He uses hard times to mold the character of His people, with much prayer and trust that He knows best, they stayed the course.
The week before Christmas Mr. Strackbein secretly gave Matthew permission to ask for Shanna’s hand in marriage. Thus began a flurry of events involving jewelers who didn’t want to see an heirloom ring before the new year, shipping the ring across the country to a jeweler who would see it, buying flowers, decorating a bland ring box to fit Shanna’s aesthetic, making sure recording devices were hidden and excuses were made for the more obvious ones, and practicing the kneeling, ring box flourish . The whole family was in on the secret, but thankfully Shanna suspected nothing. She thought the two needed to talk through still more important issues before they pursued engagement. Instead, her mind kept preoccupied on organizing her family members for Christmas morning present exchange, meals, and all the little details of a day with extended family.
Thus, on December 25th, 2018, Matthew sat Shanna down for what seemed like an ordinary time of morning devotions. They read from Genesis 1 and talked about the place of the family in God’s creation. They prayed for each other…. Then Matthew told Shanna he wanted to give her the first gift of the day. She had no idea what was to come and happily laughed that she was getting a gift so early! He got down on his knee, and as her expression went from utter shock to utter joy, he told her that both his and her parents had given their blessing to proceed to engagement, that he believed that it would honor God and glorify Christ if they got married. He asked for her hand, and amid joyful tears, Shanna gave it.
Beyond the Horizon
The future remains in God’s hands. All Shanna and Matthew really know is that they are planning a wedding! And looking forward to a life lived by faith… together.
To the Lord of glory who thunders over his creation, who speaks peace in the storm, who fills the universe and his people’s hearts with meaning…. to God be our praise and trust and thankfulness. He is full of glory and goodness and power and holiness and wonder. He is the our only salvation, the maker of beauty, the one who sustains us. May we worship our kind Lord who nurtures with the wind and the waves, and reigns over us.
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