By Jenny Rapson 
In June 2017, the Christian community (especially online) was rocked by news that Proverbs 31 Ministries Lysa TerKeurst and her husband of 25 years, Art TerKeurst, were divorcing. Art had, Lysa said, been “repeatedly unfaithful” and struggled with substance abuse. Though she fought valiantly to save her marriage, she said, her efforts weren’t enough, and she felt she had no choice but to seek a divorce and “release him to the Savior.”
TerKeurst’s news struck fear in the heart of happily married Jesus-following ladies everywhere; if it could happen to her, surely our marriages were not off-limits. It was unfathomable that her 25-year-marriage was lost. I mean, she was literally the modern-day Proverbs 31 woman.
But God, y’all. But. GOD.
This past summer, after the most grueling year of her life (that included breast cancer and a double mastectomy for good measure), a glimmer of hope surfaced on Lysa’s Facebook page. On Father’s Day, she posted a pic of herself with Art and several of their kids and grandkids, smiling and looking very together. Her caption said,
“A gift. A hard prayed for and fought for, glorious, messy, miraculous, honest, treasured gift of together. Happy Father’s Day Art! The way you have pursued the Lord, healing, and us… is evidence of God’s supernatural grace and goodness.
I’m praying for everyone praying for a miracle today. God has a plan but it will probably unfold in a way you never thought it would.”
At the time, Lysa’s news didn’t really make a big splash, and this concerned me. Maybe we were all just too cautious, too afraid to believe that Art could really change, too afraid to be happy for our sister in Christ in the hopes that she would not be hurt again. After all, it is hard to believe that someone who was repeatedly unfaithful to his wife for a couple of years could wholly commit to her again.
BUT GOD!
When Lysa first announced her divorce news, she plead with her blog and Facebook and Insta followers to pray.
“I’d simply ask you to pray,” she said. “Pray for my precious children and grandchildren. Pray for me. Pray for our team at Proverbs 31. And yes, please, please pray for Art.”
In a world where “thoughts and prayers” are maligned as ineffectual, to Lysa, they were invaluable. (And I tell you with my whole heart, if I am every in distress, I welcome praaaayer, people!)
And today, I know that Lysa TerKeurst is so thankful that her community DID pray. Because just yesterday she made a stunning announcement with some equally stunning photos: She and Art have renewed their vows, and she has what she says is, thanks to “a million prayers”— “a miracle answer. A marriage restored.”
In her first short post, there is a close-up black-and-white photo of herself and her husband, all dressed up, sharing a moment of closeness. She says,
“On an unusually sunny Tuesday in December, we dressed up a bit and whispered healing words, heart felt promises, and holy vows. A million prayers. A miracle answer. A marriage restored.”
In the next photo, we are treated to a photo of the entire beautiful and undoubtedly thrilled TerKeurst family, grandkids and all:
In the last gorgeous photo of the series, we see a longer shot of the happy “miracle couple,” and Lysa TerKeurst gives a longer description of how they came to this new miraculous place in their marriage, this day of her dreams:
“Never doubt we serve a God who still does miracles. In the middle of the work He did from the devastation in my marriage nothing looked like I hoped and everything felt impossible.
I prayed a million suggestions to God that never ever came to be. And the number of tears shed in the process about leaked the life out of me.
But all the while when I saw nothing, God was doing something. And in His way and His timing, new life came.
No matter how impossible that miracle you are praying for seems, please trust that only God knows the full story. He is working. He is hearing and shifting and intervening and convicting and stirring and doing what only He can do.
God does some of His best work in the unseen.
.
And thank you @jenniferabercrombiebeauty for making me feel pretty on this day of my dreams.”
Her words gave me legit chills, my friends. “I prayed a million suggestions to God that never came to be.” Oh, how that sounds familiar in my own life. I always think I know how my problems can be best solved, and so often my prayers are thinly-veiled suggestions that God work it out my way, even though time after time He has shown me, as He showed Lysa and Art, that really…He’s got this.
“No matter how impossible that miracle you are praying for seems, please trust that only God knows the full story. ”
The TerKeurst’s vow renewal made my heart grow two sizes today…not just because God can change a man, but that he can soften and heal a woman’s heart enough for her to see and embrace it (when no one would fault her for not doing so).
Do you need a “miracle answer” today? No matter what it is, I believe it can happen. These dressed-up fifty-somethings on “an unusually sunny day in December” are living, loving proof.
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