You’re Not Too Late

By Rebecca George

“You want to go for a hike?” my friend Sara texted, as we both wrapped up an exhausting week at work. I’d grown up in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, and I had come to savor the beauty and splendor of East Tennessee, so a hiking day with Sara sounded perfect! “Sure,” I said, encouraged to know that, at least for a while, I could forget about what had been plaguing my heart so deeply—singleness. Hiking has always done that for me.

With the windows rolled down, we drove down the curvy roads that led to the trailhead. When I stepped out, I took a slow, deep breath of mountain air, and we began walking inside the national park. My feet pressed into the trail, making our way across gravel, mud, leaves, and a few streams as we adventured along Middle Prong trail at Tremont.

I’d been hiking plenty of times in the Smokies, but I’d never walked this one. The more we walked, the more special it began to feel, although I wasn’t sure why. My heart couldn’t possibly have known what God was orchestrating.

Sara and I both brought immense pain and frustration to the hike that day, and what we both needed was the sound of the stream and the trail beneath our feet. We talked a little, but through a good bit of the hike I prayed silently:

God, it seems everywhere I turn, everyone around me is experiencing the life I desire to have. You created marriage for a reason, and I now you have given me the desire to share my life with someone. Please show me where my longings don’t align with your plan for my life. Help me turn to you in trust when I want to HURRY to the next phase. I beg you to give me patience, God, and to remind me I’m NOT TOO LATE. I’m right where you want me to be.

Some time passed and I began dating my (now) husband Dustin. He called one day and said, “Are you sitting down? I’ve sent you a couple pictures, but I need to tell you a story to explain. Don’t look at them yet.” He proceeded to tell me that years prior to my hike with Sara, he had gone fishing in the mountains by himself. It was raining, and he was really struggling with continuing to hope that God would give him a wife. He was exhausted, felt too late, and truly wondered if and how he would meet his spouse one day.

He hiked up one of his favorite trails, fished in the cold dreary rain, and as he hiked back down he stopped at a bench. He sat and prayed for his future wife as he watched the waterfall in the distance. Standing up to leave, he stood behind the bench and thought to himself, “I’m going to take a photo of this bench in faith that one day I’ll bring my wife here to show her one of the places where I contended for her in prayer.”

“Now, look at the pictures I sent,” he said to me on the phone. I pulled up our text thread and there before me were two photos of the same bench. One, the photo of me on the hike with my friend that I’d posted online. The other, the one he’d taken many years earlier on that fishing trip. Out of all the picturesque stopping places in the Smokies, God had led both of us to the exact same place to spend time in prayer for our future spouse.

The same waterfall.
The same bench.
The same struggle.
The same prayer.
The same God.

I often wonder what God was thinking as He watched us both, years apart, on that trail praying for one another. I like to think He thought, “Both of them have no clue what I’m about to orchestrate for them.”

That’s the beautiful journey of trusting in an omniscient God, isn’t it? He knows all, has the entire universe and the cosmos under His careful control, and yet He cares about the most intimate, even minute, details of your life. Bringing us together would’ve been enough for me (no bench required). Yet God saw fit to write a story that bears evidence to His sovereign power.

The following February, we climbed into his [Dustin’s] car to take a drive. As we made the turn that would take us to the national park, my heart started beating faster. We wound our way around the beautiful streams and gorgeous views. “He is all around me, He’s everywhere I look, and each new day is but a new page in God’s coloring book,” said our queen (Dolly Parton). I like to think she was on a drive like this when she penned those words.

We pulled into the all-too-familiar gravel lot, neither of us saying much. Words were unnecessary, seeing how we both knew why we were there. We walked for a while, no other sound apart from water trickling in the streams to our left and the gravel crunching under our feet. His hand in mine, we walked the familiar trail until we both sighed, looking up ahead as we saw a familiar bend that led to the bench. I sat down and Dustin precariously knelt in front of me. He reached into the pocket of his Filson waxed canvas jacket, a staple in his wardrobe, and pulled out a black box. You know the one. He stretched out his arms, gently opened the box and with tears in his eyes said, “Will you be my wife?”

I whispered “Yes,” and he put the ring on my finger as he stood up to sit beside me. We prayed and thanked God for His gift, asked Him to bless our marriage, and rejoiced in how He penned our story.

God is faithful because and in spite of your highest mountain top and lowest valley. His presence and comfort are a kind friend as we navigate disappointment and grief, just as His pleasure and joy are our companion as we carefully give Him glory for a next step or answered prayer.

I long to know both, don’t you? I long for His kindness in the harvest and His care in the drought.

We can’t hustle or force our way into God’s favor. We can’t worry our way into His provision. We can’t manipulate His ways just as we can’t earn His approval. If you are feeling too late today, remember this: You are under His care, in His arms, and He is working on your behalf.

[Excerpted from You’re Not Too Late © 2025 by Rebecca George. Used by permission of David C Cook. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved. Photos used with permission from Rebecca George.]