Our faith and hope is in the Lord!
Jeff and Laura Knowles were an unlikely couple in high school: a spirited, Christ centered girl and a guy who could count his church attendance on one hand. One youth mission trip later, Jeff finds himself visiting Laura in the hospital who was in a lifeless, debilitating coma and given 3 days to live. As doctors gave a bleak prognosis at best, God brought them together and defied all odds of recovery as He worked all things out for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Jeff and Laura have been married for over 7 years and have been blessed with two sons: Caleb (6) and Micah (2). They reside in Fort Worth , Texas while Jeff is attending South Western Baptist Theological Seminary for his Masters of Divinity. They have been called in ministry to share the hope in Jesus Christ. Their mission is to reflect a light in a lost and dying world through evangelism, writing and speaking.
Jeff and Laura have had the opportunity to share a hope that makes life worth living with the Florida Baptist Witness Newspaper, The Learning Channel’s “ A Wedding Story” television show, Jerry Falwell’s National Liberty Journal, June Hunt’s “Hope for The Heart” newsletter, women’s conferences, schools, churches, youth groups, and the Union Gospel Mission shelter of Tarrant county.
Our Story- By Laura Knowles
I, Laura McCue Knowles, put my trust and faith in Jesus Christ and asked Him to be the Lord of my life as a young girl. I trusted Him with all my heart to take care of me. I had no idea what my future held but I did know that I would be safe and secure because I had a hope to hang on to. As I grew life was filled with one struggle after another. I learned very young not to lean on my own understanding but to trust the Lord with all my heart. I thought I had seen it all and was strong enough to handle anything as I graduated high school.
Then there was an accident the week before I started college. On the way home from my last mission trip with my youth group the van I was riding in had a tire blow out. The van rolled five times and my life, future, plans, and dreams were shattered. I was left with a crushed body and mind. I woke up from a two week long coma to live life with very few memories from my past and the inability to create new memories in my present. I had suffered a traumatic brain injury and had severe depletions in communications, memory and emotional control. The one vivid memory I had was of Jesus holding my hand and telling me that it was not time for me to come home yet. He said there was more for me to do here, but assured me He would be with me every step of the way. In the beginning the peace and comfort of that memory was enough. As my past memories began to resurface though, I became frustrated with trying to put the puzzle of my life together. Each piece I was left to work with didn’t look worth coming back to. My life was one big disaster.
I was falling into a black hole of hopelessness as I gave into the despair surrounding my life’s circumstances. I still trusted God and turned to Him for my hope. He heard my cry and pulled me out of the miry pit I was in. He spoke to me through Romans 8:28, (NASV) “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” When it looked like the whole world had given up on me God used Romans 8:28 to remind me of the hope I could hang on to.
At the same time a good friend from high school, Jeff, was drawn to my side. At 18 years old he should have been happy to let our friendship go and move on to college and the rest of his life but something held him back. He had come to care for me so much and he somehow knew he couldn’t walk away. Watching my life throughout high school and especially in the last couple of months there was something undeniably bigger going on. It was something bigger than Jeff had ever wanted to admit to since his father died from cancer just three years prior. God was real and at work like he had never seen. He knew he had to surrender to God’s plan for his life. He didn’t know how but he had to stand firm in walking with me through this trial.
Jeff stayed by me no matter how relentlessly I pushed him away. Through the greatest time of depression and agony of my life God showed me His perfect unconditional love through the calm angel He put by my side. He was a young and far from perfect man who saw me as his very own angel, just with a pair of broken wings. We began to walk together and God opened our eyes to see and understand more clearly His sacrifice for us. He died on a cross to pay a debt we could not pay. He loved us with a love worth dying for but also worth living for.
Pressing on with full assurance that God was going to work everything out for our good, as we continued to love Him, became our unbreakable bond. The trails didn’t stop but we had a joy and a love that surpassed them all. We realized each moment of our lives was orchestrated by the One who could see the whole symphony played out. Blessed to hear the most beautiful melody ever played, through Jesus’ love for us, we could live each moment to its fullest here on earth and after. Come what may, we would play our part with the instruments God had given us. We would live and love with the example He gave us through his Son (Jesus Christ), with no condemnation.
Two separate lives, destined by an awesome Creator, would come together as one in Christ. We continue to walk together hand in hand as living sacrifices to Him who first loved us. We have now been married for 7 years and have two amazing sons, Caleb (6) and Micah (2). We are raising them to live each moment with purpose on purpose in a very uncertain society. When the world seems, at times, to be crumbling in front of us God’s promises are all we need to hang on to hope for all eternity.