The Girl in My Dreams

Some dreams are more than fleeting shadows of the subconscious—they're windows into possibilities we've yet to imagine. This is Jonathan's story: a man whose nighttime visions became daylight reality, whose broken marriage gave way to an extraordinary love that began quite literally in his dreams, proving that sometimes, surrender is the first step toward receiving what we never knew to ask for.

The cold vinyl seat of his pickup truck had become Jonathan's sanctuary. Parked in empty lots between grocery stores and office buildings, he'd clutch his phone for two-hour therapy sessions, weeping freely where no one could witness his unraveling. At 40 years old, he found himself living with his parents, his marriage of nearly twelve years dissolved, his life reset to an unrecognizable starting point. 

"When the separation happened, I chose to go live with my parents, which at 40 years old was a humiliating thing to do," Jonathan confesses, his voice carrying the memory of that surrender. His three-year-old daughter was his number one priority—the only certainty in his suddenly uncertain world. "She was all I was focused on. I wasn't thinking of my needs or desires to meet someone again or to remarry."

The 2019 separation stretched like a desert before him—eighteen months of paperwork, negotiations, and revealed character. "If you haven't gone through it, you don't know what it is," he says with the weariness of someone who's walked a path he never wanted to travel. "We didn't even have a lot to fight over, but the nastiest comes out of people during that process."

While many of his peers viewed therapy as an admission of failure, Jonathan had embraced counseling since his late twenties, understanding that emotional health required maintenance just like physical health. During the separation, a friend connected him with an inner healing process that would prove transformative.

"This was focused on spending months really going deep," he explains. "We're going to get to the root of what's causing these issues. When you're done with this thing, you're done with this thing." It wasn't a band-aid approach—it was excavation.

For three to four months, Jonathan met with his counselor once or twice weekly for two-hour sessions. The unique approach blended practical psychological work with spiritual dimensions: " My counselor would ask things from a practical perspective, then be completely Holy Spirit led. 'Is there anything there, Jonathan? How do you see Jesus in this moment?'"

Living in his parents' home created unexpected complications. "I felt that I couldn't go in a room in their house because I'm crying, going deep, praying. So I would drive my truck to an empty parking lot for these two-hour sessions."

 The very arrangement that had initially felt like rock bottom—moving back home at 40—gradually revealed itself as divine care. His father's observation after a few months captured the transformation: "Jonathan, you're a different person than when you moved in here."

As the divorce process crawled toward its conclusion, Jonathan felt the natural desire to date again stirring within him. Instead, he received clear internal guidance: "The Lord said, nope. You don't have permission to date until the divorce is finalized—and there's no date on when that will be."

Such a directive might feel restrictive, but Jonathan had learned to recognize the voice of wisdom in his life. "I've always had a good relationship with the Lord where I trust His voice," he explains. "If He says something, I know it's for my good—He's protecting me or there's something I can't see down the road."

While waiting, Jonathan discovered the community of supportive men he'd prayed for decades earlier had materialized around him without his noticing. "Around 40, I looked around and suddenly saw all these men in my life. God had answered my prayer." These friends became his foundation during the waiting period, providing fellowship, wisdom, and joy amid the healing process.

When November 2020 arrived with the final divorce decree, Jonathan confronted a new challenge: dating as the only single person in his friend group. After hearing countless "horror stories" about online dating, he refused that path entirely. Instead, he issued a simple declaration: "Lord, You're going to have to bring somebody to me."

God accepted Jonathan’s challenge. In August 2022, Jonathan dreamed about a woman named Jody—someone he vaguely knew from a marriage event they both attended in Georgia eight years earlier with their respective spouses. In the dream, they stood in a beach restaurant with open windows, beautiful wooden planks, and a gentle breeze rolling in from the ocean—a quintessential hole-in-the-wall spot beloved by locals. He embraced her from behind, and she reached up to hold his arm. Upon waking, Jonathan remembered every vivid detail. Over the next two weeks, Jody appeared in two more dreams.

Curiosity piqued, Jonathan looked up Jody's social media—"stalking her," as he candidly admits. What he discovered wasn't the carefully curated highlight reel common to many. "When I saw her stuff, it was all about parenting, loving on her kids. You could tell there was an authenticity there." Her genuine motherhood deeply resonated with him—being a good mother was one of the top traits he sought in a potential partner.

After fifteen years outside the dating world, Jonathan felt unprepared for making first contact. He eventually summoned the courage to comment on one of Jody's Instagram stories about her child falling into a fountain. She responded quickly—something he later learned was uncharacteristic for her. A few days later, her daughter's birthday provided another opening for conversation.

Their communication evolved rapidly—Instagram messages to text messages to a three-hour phone call, all within five days. He even invited her to an event he needed to attend in Las Vegas in the near future. The butterflies he felt were reminiscent of adolescence, but with the depth that only adult experience can bring. 

During these conversations, Jonathan discovered that Jody was also divorced and, in a twist, had once traveled to Mexico with his ex-wife. "She's literally going to the airport as I'm getting in for a guy’s trip. We probably passed each other in Mexico," he marvels, still struck by how their paths had circled each other for years.

There was just one complication: Jody lived in Tennessee while Jonathan lived in North Carolina—a seven-hour drive apart.

Their connection defied conventional timelines. "Within the first three weeks, we're already talking marriage," Jonathan admits without embarrassment. Their conversations bypassed small talk entirely, diving instead into substantive territory: how they had each contributed to the demise of their marriages and the inner work they were committed to doing. For three weeks, they talked for hours each night—sometimes until 2 AM despite their different time zones and Jonathan's usual early bedtime.

"The beauty of a long-distance relationship was it forced us to really know each other," he reflects. "When you date locally, you have distractions. This was just us talking with never a pause." They built a foundation of emotional intimacy before ever being in the same room.

After three weeks of daily conversations, Jonathan finally made the seven-hour drive to Nashville, his heart pounding as he neared his destination. "The last two hours of the trip, we talked on the phone until I pulled into her neighborhood, cut the car off, and finally met her in person and we embraced one another." The transition from digital connection to physical presence was seamless—confirmation of something genuine.

Jonathan can't pinpoint exactly when he fell in love with Jody, but he knows it happened during those three weeks of conversation, before they ever shared physical space. They waited until they were together to say it aloud. That weekend, exchanging those words face-to-face, they recognized the undeniable narrative unfolding between them.

Their relationship accelerated with remarkable certainty. Four months after meeting, Jonathan proposed in Vegas—at the very event he had invited Jody to join during their first week of talking. Three months after that, they married. From his first dream of Jody to their wedding day spanned just seven months—a timeline that might seem reckless if not for the spiritual certainty they both felt.

Their wedding ceremony centered not on themselves but on their five children—Jonathan's daughter and Jody's four kids. "We had specific vows for each other's children," he shares. "We wanted to make sure the kids knew this wasn't just us—this was about all seven of us."

Even after marriage, they maintained homes in different states—what began as a logistical necessity for two divorced parents became a great arrangement for their newly blended family to bond at their own pace." My daughter has been a single child her whole life," Jonathan explains. "To be thrown into living with four other kids would have been a culture shock. This allowed them to build relationships gradually." 

The geographic distance, rather than straining Jonathan and Jody’s relationship, enhanced their appreciation for each other. "When you don't wake up beside your spouse every day, you realize what you take for granted. Our time together is intentional, valuable."

For their honeymoon, they considered various options before deciding on a beach house in Florida—a location neither had visited before. While walking along the shore one afternoon, Jonathan glanced down the beach and spotted a small building in the distance. Immediately, recognition flooded him as God spoke to his heart: "See that place down there? That was the restaurant in your dream."

In awe, Jonathan and Jody rode their bikes to the spot. Everything matched exactly as he had dreamed it—the windows, the wooden structure, the breeze coming in, the sounds, the smells. They recreated the moment captured in his dream with a photograph: Jonathan's arms around Jody in the exact spot he had envisioned.

Through the crucible of divorce, the vulnerability of healing in parking lots, and the patience of waiting for the right time, Jonathan found something beyond what he could have orchestrated for himself: a love that had literally begun in his dreams. He recognizes the significance of following guidance even when the destination isn't visible: "Had I rushed this process, or been disobedient to His commands, I could have missed out on one of the greatest blessings and gifts of my entire life. I literally got the girl in my dreams."