Seeing Providence Looking Back
Sometimes the providence of God is seen most clearly only when we look backward.
At the time, life may seem ordinary. A young nurse takes the next assignment. A door opens. A new place appears on the map. A friendship begins. A shared home, shared work, shared meals, shared prayers, shared burdens. Nothing may seem dramatic at first.
But years later, when we look back with the eyes of faith, we begin to see that God was there all along.
That is how I now think about Naomi and Lucille LeBeau. I always did, but now it becomes so clear.
Two Women Brought Together by God
Naomi Koerwitz, who later became Naomi Dassow, and Lucille LeBeau were brought together for a season in Buckhorn, Kentucky. They were both nurses. They both had a heart for people. They both found themselves serving in a rural Appalachian community where the needs were many and the work was personal.
But their story was more than a story about nursing.
It was a story about God’s sovereignty and providence.
I believe God mysteriously brought two different young Christian women together for that season. They came from different Christian backgrounds and different life experiences, but both had their faith in Jesus renewed early in life. They were Christian sisters in the Lord.
Long before either one of them was born, God knew their names. He knew their gifts. He knew the people they would serve. He knew the season when their lives would intersect.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
That verse helps me understand Naomi and Lucille’s shared life. God had prepared good works for both of them. For a time, those good works were done together.
More Than Nurses
Naomi and Lucille lived and worked together in a way most of us can hardly imagine today. Their life was not divided neatly into work hours and personal hours. They were together in the work, together in the home, together in the community, and together in the daily demands of caring for people.
They served 24/7.
They entered homes. They listened to people. They cared for the sick. They traveled roads and hills and hollows. They brought medical skill, but also something more: the presence of Christ through compassion, patience, courage, and faithfulness.
Their nursing was real nursing. But it was also ministry.
That is what Christian community can become when faith moves from words into life. Naomi and Lucille were sisters in the Lord, and that sisterhood was not theoretical. It was lived out in shared work, shared trust, shared service, and shared dependence on God.
An Older Sister and Informal Mentor
Lucille was about fifteen years older than Naomi and had never married. That age difference mattered. I imagine Lucille was not only Naomi’s coworker, but also an informal mentor and older sister in the Lord.
She had more life experience, more nursing experience, and more experience serving in difficult places. Naomi was still young, still being shaped, still learning how her faith and her nursing could come together in a life of service. Lucille likely helped model that for her.
Their shared life was not only about medical work. It included ordinary days, Sunday worship, church services, recreation, conversations, meals, laughter, prayer, and the quiet companionship that forms people over time. Seeds were planted in Naomi during that season. Those seeds bore fruit later in her marriage, motherhood, nursing, church service, prayer ministry, and compassion for people in need.
That is one of the beautiful mysteries of God’s providence. One life touches another life, and the influence keeps moving outward. Lucille’s life touched Naomi’s life. Naomi’s life touched mine, our children, our church, and many others. The ripple effect continues, even now.
Taking More Than a Degree Into the World
I remember the thought shared by Lauri Thompson back at their college graduation. While parents were snapping pictures of their daughters receiving degrees, those young women were taking something more than a college degree out into the world.
That was true of Naomi.
It was also true of Lucille.
They carried knowledge, training, and professional skill. But they also carried faith, calling, compassion, and the love of Jesus. In Buckhorn, that love became visible. It went out into the community through their hands, their voices, their prayers, and their willingness to serve.
A Season, Then Separate Paths
The time Naomi and Lucille shared did not last forever. Seasons rarely do.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
There was a season when God joined their lives. Then there came a season when God led them in different directions. Not by their conscious choice, but by the changing healthcare system at the time. The mid 70’s. And that was the event that led Naomi back to Milwaukee where we met a short time later.
Lucille had a different path ahead. Naomi had a different path ahead. Their parting was not the end of the story. It was God continuing His story in each of them.
Lucille went on to serve in other places and in other ways. Naomi came back to Milwaukee. She became my wife, the mother of our children, and a woman of quiet but deep ministry. She served in nursing, in home care, in church life, in prayer, in hospitality, and in many hidden ways that may never be fully known this side of heaven.
But I believe something from Buckhorn stayed with her.
The courage. The compassion. The ability to enter hard places. The willingness to serve without needing attention. The deep sense that people mattered because they mattered to God.
Thanking God for Lucille
As I think about Naomi’s life now, I am thankful for Lucille.
Lucille was not just a coworker in Naomi’s early life. She was part of God’s shaping work in Naomi. She was a sister, a mentor, a companion in service, and a witness to the faithfulness of God.
I do not know all that Naomi learned from Lucille. I do not know all the conversations they had, all the prayers they prayed, or all the burdens they carried together. But I know this: their shared season mattered.
And because Naomi’s life blessed mine for 45 years, I feel gratitude for those who helped shape her before I ever knew her.
Lucille was one of those people.
The Mystery of God’s Plan
The older I get, the more I realize how much of life is mystery.
We make choices. We pray. We walk through open doors. We wonder what God is doing. Sometimes we only understand a little. Sometimes we do not understand at all.
But faith tells me this: God is not absent.
He was not absent in Buckhorn. He was not absent when Naomi and Lucille were brought together. He was not absent when their paths separated. He was not absent when Naomi later became my wife. And He is not absent now as I grieve, remember, write, and give thanks.
Proverbs 16:9 says, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
Naomi and Lucille may not have seen the full meaning of their shared season at the time. But God did.
And now, looking back, I can say thank You, Lord.
Thank You for Buckhorn.
Thank You for Lucille.
Thank You for Naomi.
Thank You for the mysterious providence that brought two Christian sisters together for a season of service, and then sent each one forward into the good works You had prepared for them.
A Prayer
Lord, thank You for the quiet beauty of Your providence.
Thank You for bringing Naomi and Lucille together in Your time and for Your purposes.
Thank You for their faith in Jesus and for the sisterhood they shared in You.
Thank You for the people they served, the lives they touched, and the love they carried.
Help me to see Naomi’s story with gratitude, not only sorrow.
Help me to trust that every season of life is held in Your hands.
Continue to use Naomi’s legacy and Lucille’s faithfulness for Your glory.
Amen.
