MIRACLE IN THE STARS

This is a love story…written in the stars.

As Danielle and I were dating, we had made the decision to live apart until we were married. She on her small ranch and me in my home on the Deer Canyon Nature Preserve, both in central New Mexico. We were separated by about a 20 minute drive.

Both Danielle and I are early risers and I especially enjoyed walking my two dogs, Sunny and Skye early in the morning. Sunny was a Chow-Golden Retrieve mix and sweet as pie. Skye was an Australian Cattle Dog and full of life. Both were extremely well behaved, my amazing partners and they loved to walk and run in the half hour or so before dawn.

My home sat alone on an 18,000 acre nature preserve where all vegetation and animal life was protected. I could not see my neighbor and the dogs and I could walk up the side of the mesa on a well defined trail. The dogs were off leash and that left me to behold the wonders of nature that surrounded me. With so little light pollution, the stars gave off enough light that I did not need a light to guide my path. I used to tell people that on a moonlit night you could sit outside and read the newspaper, it was so bright. As the three of us walked, we were surrounded by silence, peace, and the overwhelming presence of nature and God.

One morning, as I was walking, I looked up at the stars and my attention was immediately drawn to three very bright stars. These stars were aligned in a constellation and shape of a triangle, . It really caught my attention, and immediately I felt a divine tug. Not sure how to adequately describe it but I felt as if there was some significant meaning to what I was seeing. And then it came to me. It was meant to show my relationship with God and with Danielle. It was my own holy trinity. God, Danielle and I were represented by the three sides of the triangle. We were inside the triangle and we were meant to be together. I believed that we were divinely destined to be together.

I was anxious to return home and call Danielle to tell her of my experience. It was my habit to call Danielle each morning following my walk to spend a few minutes on the phone before our days began. I called Danielle.

Now lets here Danielle’s side of the story:

“Following my divorce, I had been alone for a few years and was not sure I should be entering into another permanent relationship. Even if I made that decision I questioned whether Ray was the man for me. In my prayers I asked God for a sign that I was making the right decision to move ahead with Ray.”

“One early morning, before dawn, I looked into the night sky and I saw three very bright stars. They were in the shape of a triangle and I saw this as a sign that God, Ray, and I were entwined in the triangle. I felt so strongly about this that I prayed to God that if Ray was right for me, let him see the same sign. But even as I prayed this prayer I thought this was an impossibility.”

“Twenty minutes later the phone rang and Ray said, “You need to go outside and look into the sky at three bright stars that are in the shape of a triangle. I think it means that God, you and me are meant to be together.”

“What? My head was in a spin. Was this really happening? I couldn’t believe it! I was so happy but I was still having difficulty wrapping my head around it. Both Ray and I were in a state of amazement as we went over the story again and again. God was real! My prayer really had been answered!”

Final Decision

From that moment on, Danielle and I were all in. This was not coincidence, this was not fate, this was faith in action. God is! It was apparent to both of us that our marriage was meant to be. To this day, we often revisit this story of the miracle in the stars and we still get goose-bumps as we relive the story. We have also used this experience as a way of anchoring our relationship. In difficult times or in times of disagreement, we remind each other of the story in the stars. This was our covenant with God. It was a divine agreement between the three of us. God had given us his promise and it was ours to keep. We knew in those few sacred moments that we indeed had a God who listens and lives.

Soon thereafter, following a church service, I knelt on my knees in the sanctuary of our church, and asked Danielle to be my wife. She said the word I had longed to hear, a resounding “YES”. On May 16, 2015, we took God at his word which was given to us in this sign in the sky, and we were married in our church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

One last thing! Following that moment with the triangle of stars showing themselves to us, we have never seen them again. We looked the following day, the constellation was gone. We have looked many times. We even looked on the anniversary of the event; they were no where to be seen. We truly believe this moment was exclusively meant for us. It was our Star of Bethlehem moment and as we remember, we will continue to sing praises to God our King.

Our destiny was written in the stars.