The testimony given by Joel and Coquetta Erickson at their wedding, October 22, 2005.

Two Young Fools and the Grace of God

Part 2 Joel

I first met Coquetta when I was about ten. I can’t say it was love at first sight. But I did like her. In fact, some of the first things I remember liking about her was her books and Legos. A couple weeks ago I said to her, “It seems like only yesterday we were playing with Legos together.” She smiled at that. Because we had been playing with Legos just the day before.

Throughout our teens, our two families were together a lot. We did some school classes together, and gardening, and camping, and many other activities of work and play. Because I was the only boy in the group, I was often apart, or else joining in with my older sister and Coquetta. I liked Coquetta’s personality. In my boyish heart I admired her.

As I grew older, I gradually let go of the resolution that I would never get married. Examining life from the perspective and great wisdom of a teenager, I realized that most people got married, so I’d better not make any rash statements, as it could likely be my fate as well. And when I sometimes considered the possibility of getting married, I wondered vaguely if it would be to Coquetta. But I would usually conclude that we were both too critical in our attitudes, and wouldn’t get along very well. Yet I still looked up to her, and would often try to do better in my life because of her.

Then came the time when I realized I was a sinner. I told myself I would never get married in the condition I was, because I didn’t want anybody who would be willing to marry me with this sinfulness in my heart.

But Jesus came and changed my heart and made me His child. And so I entered upon These Happy Golden Years, as I thought of them. But that was just the beginning of true happiness.

As Coquetta and I and our siblings had grown up, we had all gone into various pursuits, and weren’t together quite as often. I was absorbed in trying to seek a vocation. Computers had always fascinated me, and after several years of programming, I finally stumbled onto web design, which really gave me satisfaction. When I was ten, if you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said, “A carpenter.” By the time I turned 20, it was web applications that I wanted to earn my living at. But after some disheartening attempts at trying to find a job in that field, I decided to start at something else, and the Lord opened the way for me to work at a construction job at my grandfather’s place. As I look back, God was very gentle in guiding me, and giving me just what I needed to help me grow. I worked on and off at construction for a couple years, and in between honed my computer skills, hoping for a job to turn up. I practiced by building an online library of books and music, and even recruited Coquetta to help with some proofreading. Although she doesn’t think she did very much, she was a help to me, more so than just the work that she completed.

During this time I was seeking to be fully yielded to the Lord and His will. And when He was preparing me to enter in to His fullness of blessing, He gave me two requirements: I must be willing to be single the rest of my life, and I must be willing to work at whatever job He gave me. It wasn’t too hard to consecrate to be single, for after all, I had been single all my life, and though by that time I knew that I wanted to get married, I believed the Lord could help me, if that’s what He wanted. The job was harder to sacrifice, but I trusted that the Lord would help me to earn a living, too.

One author says that the Lord requires us to sacrifice everything to Him, not so that we’ll be deprived of every joy and happiness, but so that He’ll be first in our heart, and so that every blessing will be through Him and in His control. For Jesus said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”* (Mark 10:30)

Coquetta

Since I got saved I wanted to live for Jesus with my whole heart. The world seemed a much better place. And now I did not feel ashamed to be alive. I asked my Father what He wanted me to do, besides being a good daughter. I mean, what was His desire that I should work at? His answer startled me. (It probably won’t startle you folks.) :-) “I want you to be a homemaker.” The answer was clear. Had I stepped off a merry-go-round? I felt dizzy. What? Me? After the kind of person I had been?

Why, I wasn’t ready.

No. I wasn’t ready. But God had already thought about it. Many are His thoughts toward us, He said (Psalm 40:5).

My sister obtained guardianship over a newborn baby girl. When I heard of the possibility, I knew the Lord was really changing me, for I desired to take care of her with a very strong desire. And so it was, in God’s plan, that I was there and saw baby V—— as she took her first breath. I felt love for a tiny human being. While Abigail taught school, I took care of the baby, and then took care of her overnight when Abigail was very sick. Then I went to live with my sister and took care of her household and V——. Isn’t God so careful how He teaches us things? I thought I would die sometimes because of His stretching, that surely I would have to fail. But He said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”* (2 Corinthians 12:9) And it was true. I didn’t have to fail when He was with me.

It was while I was at my sister’s that a music discussion over email with Joel turned into discussion of other things. I was used to writing him off and on for the website work. His love for songs had brought to my attention the words in songs I had never noticed. Now his outlook taught me more things I never noticed either. Nevertheless, the valentine poem at the end of the letter surprised me. How on earth could he write such lovely poetry about my salvation? But then I went and prayed because I did not know what to do with the rest of the valentine poem.

Many things went through my mind as I thought of the letter he had sent.

I was eleven when my family met Joel’s family. I was delighted that they had a girl my age and soon became best friends with her. Did I notice her brother? Uh-hmm. Did I like him? Yes and no. I was mostly curious what Laura thought of him, because I had never had a brother.

One of my favorite things about him was the stamp collection he had. I had one too. And sometimes we would trade; that was great fun. We seemed to be the only ones that liked stamps, and when we would trade, I wished we could be friends.

Often Joel would get pulled into what Laura and I had dreamed up to do. I guess I liked him, for I would feel quite indignant at how she would order him around. When he’d refuse to participate under such terms, I admired him, and felt a twinge of self-pity. Hmm.

My other favorite thing about him was how he could read aloud. So often when we baked or sewed or quilted, we were treated to a story, and the stories he would read were never boring.

And then, like he said, as teenagers we went our separate ways. I learned to garden and kept perfecting my sewing skills. Laura went to teaching children. I house-cleaned and babysat. And sometimes I would think about Joel—I didn’t hear very much about him. Except for his music, and it kept getting more beautiful.

And then my life changed. With Jesus’ life in my heart, things looked different. I wondered, out of the blue, if when Joel’s heart had been changed, things looked so much better. But the more I thought about it, the more troubled I became. I began to fear that he didn’t know what I had found. This made me feel funny. Why was I so worried that my friend’s brother might not know about Jesus. I mean, he knew about Him alright, but what about His marvelous power to make darkness light? And then the Erickson family invited me to join them on a camping trip.

Two things happened on that trip. One was that I realized that Joel didn’t know. If he didn’t know, then he was still bound by sin. When I thought this, the earth seemed to crack open as it did for Korah, who rebelled against Moses, and it seemed that Joel stood at the edge ready to fall in. I could see him, but couldn’t even shout to warn him. I didn’t want him to die. And I cried out to the Lord in my heart, “Please, oh, please talk to him. Don’t let him die!” And the Lord said, “I will talk to him.” I hadn’t realized that I cared. But I didn’t want him to live without finding the beauty of life I had found.

The second thing was when I was sitting on a rock all by myself writing in my diary. From the sky came God’s voice as a thunderbolt; it shook my heart, my ears tingled, as He asked, “Would you marry someone you were persuaded did not love God with all his heart?” God was waiting—what was I going to say? I realized that if I married one who did not particularly love God, I would have to turn my back somewhat on my Savior. So I promised I never would. And I also promised to pray for Joel every day until he found God.

When you pray for someone, you learn to care about them. And thus it was that the night Joel prayed through and God touched his heart that I felt like I was walking on clouds. Not only had God answered my prayer, He had saved Joel Erickson! I was very, very happy.

To be continued…