OCTOPUS SCHMOCTOPUS

I have always been a praying woman.
















And I pray in specifics, which might annoy God, but maybe not since I have come across a few versus that tell you to do exactly that.

So…one time…I was in relationship confusion and wanted my answer from above.

It was a very long time ago, but my prayer went a little something like this….

Dear God…I’m not sure what to do or where you want me to go with this relationship, so please point out the person you want me to marry by having him say the word "octopus"….it’s a weird word and if he says it then I will know he’s our man.

Good grief…so…of course, I was hoping the man I was in a relationship with would be the one to say something along the lines of…. "If I were an octopus I still wouldn’t have enough arms to hug you…."

But instead..I was in a serious business meeting in Austin serving on a government committee and during the meeting a very handsome and smart man was giving a presentation on a cost benefit study his company was involved in. He used words like quasi and extrapolate and just in general…impressed me.

We had met before and while I considered him attractive, I was in love with someone else, so when he came up to me during the break and slipped in the fact that he had been busier than a 9 armed octopus, well…let’s just say it kind of flipped me out.

This is NOT the person who was supposed to say octopus to me and so now I am very confused and worried.

"God, this is unexpected…what shall I do now?"

What I did? I married my husband.

And we have had our ups and downs and he knows he was supposed to be the Octopus Man but wasn’t.

After 12 years of marriage and said ups and downs I have come to a peace that it’s ok that I didn’t marry THE Octopus Man…and possibly what I was supposed to do was be patient, obedient, and listen to God’s plan for my life. Period.

It all seems very amusing now--I don’t put God to silly tests like that anymore and …my husband has said Octopus to me so many times it’s just not even funny. And he buys me silly and sweet octopus presents and there has even been discussion of octopus tattoos at some point.
But the real moral to this story is that somewhere along the way…the octopus has become a sentimental reminder of seeking my path and finding it in a way that I had not expected…and so in fact I really really did marry my Octopus Man.

Yep…God knew what He was doing.