The Divine Matchmaker

by Joel Johnson, Casey Johnson

PRELUDE

“Two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.”

~John Keats,

Finding true love is priceless. For many, living a lifetime falling more in love with the one you love is only a dream. Can you put a price tag on finding the one who loves you―heart & soul―solely for your heart? There’s no monetary equivalent to finding the Love-of-your-Life. Wouldn’t it be great if you had someone, versed in the ways of love, to help find your One-and-Only? That’s what hundreds of men and women do on the hit reality TV show The Millionaire Matchmaker. For tens of thousands of dollars, millionaire bachelors hire Patti Stanger, the Millionaire Matchmaker, to help them find the only thing they haven’t acquired, their True Love. Patti has a massive index of the most eligible men and women in Southern California and boasts of having a 98% match success rate. Watch out e-harmony! If we all had a matchmaker this successful to help us find Mr. or Miss. Right and avoid Mr. or Miss. Wrong, it might make some of us feel a little better about our chances of finding our true love.
Though Patti’s operation is impressive, wouldn’t it be great to have a matchmaker who had an even bigger Rolodex than her? Let’s say someone who had access to the most eligible individuals across the country or, for you international types, across the world? You might even feel better about your chances of finding your soul mate, if this matchmaker was a personal family friend, had watched you grow up, knew pretty much everything about you and had offered their matchmaking services when ever you were in need of them? I think many of us would.
I hope it won’t come as a surprise, when I tell you that I employed someone much like this to help me find Casey, the absolute Love of my Life. Without hesitation, I can say, that the time, training and money I invested totally paid off. Like my matchmaker told me, you can’t put a price tag on finding everlasting love. If you’re single, you might be thinking you would be interested in getting his business card. (Even if you’re not “in the market” right now, it might be good to have his contact info for some other time.) I promise, if you’ve seen the film Hitch, He’s the real life Alex Hitchens, only better. He’s incredibly smooth―a true Love Doctor. He’s helped even the most romantically challenged individuals find their way down love’s, occasionally bumpy, path. His staff services a 24-hour a day help line. He has a global database and connections everywhere. He is the world’s foremost expert on love and a divine matchmaker. I relied upon his advice every step of the way and now I am hopelessly in love with the woman of my dreams. He led me into a romance with the right person at the right time and for that I am forever appreciative. Surprisingly, most people have heard of my matchmaker, but had no idea that he was so proficient in the art. You may be asking who this love guru is? His name is God.
While many lovers often believe they are truly a match made in heaven, few would go as far as to say that God, himself, was their Matchmaker. I think this may be an expertise of his that many grossly under acknowledged today, but is clearly attributed to God throughout the Scripture.
Abraham was a believer in God’s keen matchmaking ability. This is undeniable, just look at the instruction he gives to his servant sent to pick up a wife for his son, Isaac. He says, “God will send his angel ahead of you to get a wife for my son.” (Gen. 24: 7). Now if you’ve heard this story before, you might gloss over this verse and continue with the story. But if you stop and really think about what Abraham is saying, it is a bit bizarre. I’ve never heard anyone talk like this. I’ve never heard a pastor preach on this? Actually, if anyone did say to me that God’s angel was going to pick out my spouse, I would probably recommend an excellent twelve-step program I know of. For most of us, the idea of winged angelic beings making people fall in love isn’t totally a foreign concept, but we just expect to find this type of thing on Valentine’s cards or in Greek Mythology, not in the Bible. So either Abraham was in need of some serious rehabilitation or maybe the person whom God called his “good friend” was on to something (Is. 41:8).
The man sent to get Isaac’s “unknown” bride also believed God was a matchmaker. Abraham had instructed him to get a wife from his hometown, Nahor. The servant came to a spring outside the city, where all the young ladies came to get water. He prayed that God would reveal the young lady to him by a specific sign. He would know it was her if when he asked for a drink of water and she would not only give him a drink but also offer to water all ten of his camels (an act that would take hours of labor to accomplish). When this happened, he would take it as a sign that God was “working graciously behind the scenes.” (Gen 24:14)
The servant knew God was working behind the scenes―the Matchmaker w...

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2010

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I respect that the say "this is how WE did it and we want to share that with you". But the underlying message is "we think you should do it this way or your relationship will suck". Relationships don't have a secret formula. Some things work for some couples, but not for all couples.

[Squire Whitney: Hufflepuff Book Reviwer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read The Divine Matchmaker by my landlady’s pleading, even though I very much do not agree with the book’s premise. For one, I am far from that convinced that God preselects our “perfect match,” but rather I tend to think of God as leaving it up to us to chooses our spouses. While it is certainly possible to make a poor choice for a life partner, I believe that there exist thousands of people out there for any person that match with their personality, their values, and their core believes in such a way that they could potentially share a loving and healthy marriage. And I thus fear that a belief in “soulmates” too often puts too much pressure on a romantic relationship. Also, just as Joel and Casey felt God leading them toward courtship ideals, I have felt God directing me away from such ideals—at least for my personal life. I was raised by a church that preached such notions, but I found that these ideals led to a great deal of confusion for me when I started to develop an interest in pursuing romantic relationships. The courtship process worked out fantastically for Joel and Casey, as well as it has for some other happily married couples that I know—and I ought not doubt that God likely led them down such a path for their lives—but that sort of path simply does not work for me. As another reviewer has remarked, “Relationships don't have a secret formula. Some things work for some couples, but not for all couples.” In my experience, Christians are often far too prone to assume that what worked well for them ought to work well for everyone.

This is not to say that there isn’t anything to appreciate about The Divine Matchmaker. Several sections of the book proved genuinely helpful to me. Joel’s section on the purpose of singleness proved particularly impactful for me, and I also appreciate the advice not to tell one’s parents too much about their marriage and romantic relationships (which is honestly something I really needed to hear). The writers also make great points about how important it is for couples to be best friends. What’s more, I find Joel’s and Casey’s testimonies on how they came to know Jesus particularly encouraging. Both co-authors come from broken families, and neither of them were raised as Christians—which gives them a bit more credence to preach to struggling individuals from various backgrounds than, say, Joshua Harris, who wrote I Kissed Dating Goodbye as a church-reared teenager.

The Divine Matchmaker is written with the best of intentions. I am glad to have read the book, and I feel that most people could glean at least something useful from its contents, but I also fear that the work’s central premise can prove rather problematic in the wrong hands. I fear that it might convict someone to pursue a path that will prevent them from growing to their potential and learning what relationships are truly like, before they want to invest in a lifelong partner. I give The Divine Matchmaker a mere two stars on principle, as I probably would do with any nonfiction work whose foremost premise I fundamentally disagree with, but this does not mean that I hate the book. Perhaps my feelings would best be described as “mild distaste.”

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells a very sweet love story between two Christians, how they were before they met, how they were while they were friends, and how they were after they started a relationship. and it says what to do, during those stages id you want to have a healthy relationship. It's really inspiring and super interesting to me! Ive recommended this book to a couple of my friends too!

[Lisa Fodor · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this book. it helped me a lot to remember that being single is ok and to just wait for God's timing, and the perfect persin for you will be there. i love this book, and it was very sweet on how this couple met. <3