Getting the Point.
My first marriage in 1955 was to a precious lady named Norma. It was to last 38 years until her untimely death from breast cancer. She was a true “helpmate”, as I was to learn years later, in the pattern of Genesis 2:18. We were deeply in love, but we only had two weeks together before I was required to serve on board a destroyer in the U.S. Navy. So it became a time of testing for both of us. Very few persons would prescribe this scenario for newlyweds.

While I would be at sea for weeks at a time, Norma would stay in our apartment with only a radio for communication with the world. Television had only just arrived, and we could not afford it. She had no means of transportation, so she would walk to the grocery store. There were few neighbors with whom she could relate. Norfolk was a ‘sailor’ town, and people were busy with their own lives.

Meanwhile I was consumed with a “4 on, 8 off” watch schedule on the destroyer. Sleep came all too infrequently, so we all longed for those days of shore leave. We needed a break! So on one occasion, as we were allowed to leave the ship for a few days, I arrived home to find her eagerly anxious to escape from the four walls around her. How could anyone expect anything else? But no, I was only bent on getting a nap!

After we talked for a while I slipped off into dreamland. Suddenly I was awakened by a sharp, stinging rap on my forehead. I awoke to see Norma fiercely looking at me with a high-heeled shoe in her hand. Suddenly I realized that life was not “all about me.” We quickly left the apartment and went out to dinner. I was never to be the same again. She had made her ‘point’—literally.  Over the years we laughed many times about this incident.

God works in strange ways. He was with us, although we did not know it at the time. He was searching for our hearts and preparing the way for us to accept Him only a few years later. That is another story.
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