Last weekend, my wife and I traveled to Chicago to attend the wedding of my grandson Tommy Russell and Rebecca Littauer. My son Rusty performed the wedding ceremony, and the newlyweds beamed with joy and excitement throughout the ceremony and reception. They are convinced that the Lord brought them together…and with good reason.

Just eleven months ago, Tommy sat at our kitchen table with my wife Judy and expressed concern about his future. He was about to graduate from Liberty University with a degree l in biochemistry and planned to pursue a doctorate in that field. Yet his main concern was that his shy, introverted manner made it difficult to meet girls. Nevertheless, he hoped to one day meet someone, get married, and have a family –a large family – with as many as six children or more. Without saying so, my wife and I both wondered if he would be able to find a young woman who shared the same dream of seven to eight children!

Judy assured Tommy that God had a way of working things out and there was no need to be anxious. The right girl would surface in God’s timing, which might be sooner than expected because God often works in mysterious ways. Little did we know how quickly – and dramatically – that “prophecy” would come true.

As many readers of this blog know, Tommy’s older brother Charlie became extremely ill with Covid last summer. Charlie’s wife, Faith, was also due with their first child, so she needed assistance in caring for Charlie. Therefore, Tommy flew to their home in Nashville to help. Thankfully he was there because, within a few days, Charlie’s health deteriorated to the point he could barely breathe, and Tommy was able to rush Charlie to the hospital.

Shortly thereafter, while Charlie was still in intensive care, Faith gave birth to their first child. It also just so happened that the Bridge Community Church in Chicago, where Charlie had previously served on staff, offered to send one of their female staff members, Rebecca Littauer, who was also Faith’s best friend, to help Faith for a couple of weeks after the baby arrived. So, it just so happened, at the home of Charlie and Faith Russell in Nashville, Tennessee, the paths of Tommy and Rebecca crossed.

Have you ever noticed how often in Scripture the “it just so happened” moments were not accidental but providential? Joseph’s brothers threw him into a pit and were going to let him die, but it just so happened that some Ishmaelite traders came by at just that moment. Moses’ mother put her infant son in a watertight basket and left him in the cattails of the Nile River, but it just so happened that Pharaoh’s daughter came to that very spot to bathe and spotted the child. The virgin Mary was told she was going to give birth to the Messiah, but Mary lived in Nazareth and the Scripture predicted the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. But it just so happened that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world would be taxed, and every man had to go to his hometown to register. It just so happened that Joseph, Mary’s husband, was from Bethlehem. So the two made the three-day journey to the City of David, where it just so happened that the time came for the baby to be born.

So, it just so happened that Tommy Russell went to Nashville to help his brother, and it just so happened that Rebecca Littauer went to Nashville to help her best friend. And it just so happened that one evening Tommy overheard Rebecca casually tell Faith she hoped to one day get married and have a large family —  as many as seven or eight children!

Even the introverted Tommy, who was already taken with Rebecca’s joyful attitude and spiritual maturity, recognized she was special, and this “word of knowledge” might be a prompting from God! So, Tommy mustered up the courage to ask Rebecca out for dinner. They talked long into the night and quickly became attracted to one another. In addition to their shared faith and both wanting to have a large family, they discovered they shared many other things in common. Within weeks, they both concluded they were meant for each other. God indeed brought them together.

Tommy and Rebecca Russell

So, 11 months later, Judy and I found ourselves attending their wedding ceremony in Chicago. The two are still infatuated with each other and so gloriously happy that it was a jubilant occasion for everyone. Rebecca is a wonderful Christian girl and we are thankful she comes from a great Christian family. Our family sees this relationship as a dramatic illustration that God can still bring beauty from ashes and gladness instead of mourning (Isaiah 61:3).

Today’s culture might scoff that they married while only in their early 20s and that they had not dated very long. However, I came across a recent study by Brad Wilcox, Ph.D. and Lyman Stone. Dr. Wilcox is Director of the National Marriage Project, a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Family Studies, and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia. Stone is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, Chief Information Officer of the population research firm Demographic Intelligence, and an Adjunct Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

The study, “The Religious Marriage Paradox: Younger Marriage, Less Divorce”confirms the wisdom found in God’s Word.  The finding of the study are summarized in the article “The Surprising Case for Marrying Young,” also by Dr. Wilcox. Click here to read the entire study, or here to read the article.  Here are some key points:

• While conventional wisdom holds that spending your 20s focusing on education, work, and fun, then marrying around 30, is the best path to maximize your odds of forging a strong and stable family life, research tells a different story.
• While 70% of those who marry today live together before marriage, Americans who cohabit before marriage are less likely to be happily married and more likely to break up.
• Saving cohabitation for marriage and endowing your relationship with sacred significance seems to maximize your odds of being stably and happily married.
• Our analyses indicate that religious men and women who married in their twenties without cohabiting first have the lowest odds of divorce in America today.

Once again, it just so happens the Bible proves to be the best blueprint for a good life here on earth. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 KJV). We pray this will be the case for Tommy and Rebecca Russell. We wish them both God’s best as they seek to follow His command that was first given to Adam and Eve, “Go forth and multiply!”

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