One of the greatest things I learned this past year is that dating is data collection. To break this concept down to its lowest common denominator I’d like to share how this looks from the life of Rebekah. She was about to have a “suddenly” divinely orchestrated by God with angelic assistance called dating God’s way. She was at the right place at the right time. She wasn’t out there in these dating streets like we would think of in the conventional way, but she was where she could be found.

She was doing what she was supposed to be doing and time and chance was about to come knocking on her heart with love. She was prepared and submitted without even questioning where the man was that she was about to marry. Let’s read the story and then break it down and bring her into 2024.

Genesis 24:1 Abraham was now a very old man, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. 2 One day Abraham said to his oldest servant, the man in charge of his household, “Take an oath by putting your hand under my thigh. 3 Swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. 4 Go instead to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son Isaac.”

5 The servant asked, “But what if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to travel so far from home? Should I then take Isaac there to live among your relatives in the land you came from?”

6 “No!” Abraham responded. “Be careful never to take my son there. 7 For the Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and my native land, solemnly promised to give this land to my descendants He will send his angel ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a wife there for my son. 8 If she is unwilling to come back with you, then you are free from this oath of mine. But under no circumstances are you to take my son there.”

9 So the servant took an oath by putting his hand under the thigh of his master, Abraham. He swore to follow Abraham’s instructions. 10 Then he loaded ten of Abraham’s camels with all kinds of expensive gifts from his master, and he traveled to distant Aram-naharaim. There he went to the town where Abraham’s brother Nahor had settled. 11 He made the camels kneel beside a well just outside the town. It was evening, and the women were coming out to draw water.

12 “O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham. 13 See, I am standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water. 14 This is my request. I will ask one of them, ‘Please give me a drink from your jug.’ If she says, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’—let her be the one you have selected as Isaac’s wife. This is how I will know that you have shown unfailing love to my master.”

So many men and woman have become bitter and lost hope in marriage and love. However, I believe so many have not depended on the leading of our heavenly father to arrange the marriage. No where do we see that Abraham sat Isaac down to say, hey I’m going to find you a wife. This reminds me of the same scenario in the garden with Adam. Adam had named all the animals. He knew all the animals had a mate. He didn’t ask God where his mate was. The word says, God told Adam it was not good for man to be alone.

Father knows best. It was time to collect the data.

The question is do we really trust God as father. Are you willing to receive the one God has prepared for you? When you know him as father, you move differently. His servant asked, what if she wasn’t willing to leave her state or country and move so far away from her home. Are you willing to move out of your comfort zone? Maybe you just bought a new home you love? Are you willing to move and be uprooted from your country or state to move away from all your family? Are you willing to make room for your future spouse?

She was willing and submissive.

How do we know she had a willing and submissive spirit which was the data he needed to collect. Remember he asked God to send his angel before him and if she said she would give him water to drink and his ten camels; she was the one. She was willing to work with her hands. She was willing to go out of her way that demonstrated she was supportive without knowing anything about this man. She had pure intentions before she knew she was about to be claimed as the one.

Are your motives pure or are you a woman that wants a 666. A man that is 6 feet tall. A man that has a 6 pack. Or a man that makes 6 figures. God has a man and a woman for you, and they aren’t perfect, but they will be perfect for you and it will be in divine alignment with his generational plan for your life.

Sis, God wants you to know the camels are coming!!!!

He has already gone before you to prepare the way. I’ve been hanging out in outer space, taking trips to the moon and back. So many women are superficial and want a man to spend a certain amount of money on them and won’t even allow them to take them to the cheesecake factory for a first date. Can he make you smile? Can he stimulate your mind and elevate you to make you think on a higher dimension? Can you see your future with him just from his words? Do you value the price they paid to become that best version of themselves? Or are you more concerned with how expensive that bag is he can buy you? Is he willing to wait to have you, or does he want to have your cake and eat it too now before he is willing to marry you? Is he willing to honor you not by opening a natural door, but can he open doors for you spiritually?

Do you want a man with muscles? Has he developed his spiritual muscles to carry the weight of his assignment and can you help him? Is he willing to pay the price to answer the call of God on his life and accept you as his assignment? Can you see that his assignment is bigger than his height? Do you see what I see? Can you hear, what I hear? Do you want what I want? These are simple questions that must be answered when its time to collect the data.

 

Our first date,

He wasn’t a minute late. 

And if I had one word to describe it, 

It would  be “great.”

He went out his way to travel miles, 

through years of tears to give me those smiles,

He laid out hours,

to get those powers,

In worship. 

To give me those moments that were as beautiful as flowers.

Our dates were expensive because of the price he had to pay,

That lead to the toll on the road that brought him my way,

To be able to lift me with no hands,

To survive shipwrecks and quicksand’s,

He had to overcome heartbreaks and mistakes,

survive landmines and Great Lakes,

Of pain.

He worked out in loves gym to build those muscles to flex,

to bench press me to places of intimacy to honor me with no sex,

He took me to a factory that made me cheese,

Kept my heart and mind at ease, 

Willing to wait to celebrate to have his cake,

fighting with sleep to keep dreaming and stay awake. 

Our first date, 

he didn’t hesitate.

To open the door,

Dropping hearts, leaving me longing for more,

We went straight to the moon, 

 As we levitated under the stars,

Hanging on each other’s words like dangling from monkey bars.

Suspended in the air, defying laws of logic and gravity, 

Becoming sedated, 

Intoxicated, 

numbing each other from our past reality,

With love.

 

He made me forget every moment I wanted to quit,

Made me want to grind harder with passion and grit. 

He made me grateful for every moment I was ever rejected,

and redirected,

That led me to him,

and I am eternally indebted to the God that chose 

me and not them.