To Every Thing a Purpose

FOR JEFF, it is the ultimate nightmare.  The joy of his wedding day, a day he thought would never come, is shattered by a horrific discovery less than twenty-four hours later.  His beautiful bride Emily has vanished, leaving behind her cell phone, which has a recent message he can't access, and a puzzling letter that asks him not to follow.  Worried for her safety as much as he is desperate not to lose her, he tries to track her down anyway.  A tip from their honeymoon hotel's desk clerk leads him to the local bus station, where he learns that she has returned to their home city, Cincinnati.

After a long, lonely drive, Jeff returns home to find their new apartment is still empty.  His in-laws have just left for a week long vacation, so they are not only not home, but unaware that their daughter is missing.  A quick phone call reveals that Emily is either not staying at their house in their absence, or is unwilling to answer the phone.  Not knowing who else to call, Jeff phones Emily's best friend Andrea, who also has not heard from her.  Not knowing what else to do except pray and hope against all hope, Jeff decides to remain at home for the duration of the honeymoon so that he can be there when she returns.

The "honeymoon" ends, and not only must Jeff return to work not knowing where his wife is, he must face his returning in-laws and tell them what happened.  He finds out that Emily has not contacted them, either, and is not staying at their home.  No one knows where Emily is, and no one has even the slightest idea what could have made her leave.

Rapidly growing more discouraged, Jeff's and Emily's friends from their church drop by to offer encouragement and support.  The next day, Jeff returns home from work to find Emily's favorite giant teddy bear missing from their bedroom.  He calls his friends to learn that none of them had taken it, meaning that someone had been in the house during the day, most likely Emily.  Unable to take further time away from work, but unwilling to leave the house unoccupied should Emily return again, he makes arrangements with Andrea to housesit for him while he is at work.

A bad situation becomes immediately worse the next day as Jeff checks a huge backlog of e-mail upon returning home and just before Andrea leaves for the day.  It appears that Emily has contacted him, after all, in an e-mail that apologizes as she requests a divorce.  Seeing Jeff so overcome, Andrea calls the rest of the group of friends and their Sunday School teacher over for an emergency prayer meeting

Adding insult to injury, Jeff's car breaks down the next afternoon on the way home from work.  God finally seems to be noticing his trials this time, as the owner of a nearby auto shop that is preparing for its grand opening sees him and offers to help.  Inside the shop, he sees a woman who he initially thinks is Emily, but turns out to be just the mechanic's wife.  He returns home, missing his wife more than ever, and hears from one of his brothers-in-law that they can use the e-mail that Emily sent to track the computer that sent it.  If they can do that, they might find be able to find out where she is.

Just as things start to look promising and hope begins to rise, however, Jeff is hit by the worst blow yet.  While at an informal gathering of his church friends, he is playing around with Emily's cell phone and cracks the code to her voicemail, where he learns the horrifying reason behind Emily's running away:  She's dying.  The news strikes everyone hard, and they decide to do the only thing they can do.  The call everyone they know for a two-church-wide gathering so that they can pray for a miracle.  Over two hundred people attend.

As everyone leaves for home, Jeff feels compelled to stay.  When he is alone in the church's sanctuary, a tearful, weary Emily returns to his arms.  Without a word, he drives her home.  Much to his relief, she is still asleep in their bed when he awakes the next morning.  More reunions follow that day, and then it is on to hospital to talk to Emily's doctor.

The prognosis is bleak, giving Emily approximately three months to live, though for being in such an advanced stage of cancer, the doctor admits she is in much better shape than she should be.  In fact, she seems completely healthy.

Jeff and Emily stop at the auto shop on the way home to have the oil changed in Emily's car, which provides some much needed business for the mechanic, David, who helped him out previously.  While there, Emily meets David's wife, Emma, and the two hit it off instantly.  Emily invites them both to church the following Sunday.  Only Emma accepts.  In the meantime, Emily reunites with her friends at church during the Wednesday evening service.

The next course of business is getting a second opinion, so an appointment is made with Emily's mother's doctor.  Tests are run, and while detailed results will take longer, initial results show only a small tumor on one of Emily's ovaries.  The couple returns home and awaits the full results of the biopsy.

On Sunday, Emma makes good on her promise to visit the church, where Jeff and Emily notice that she is feeling a little ill.  She assures them she is fine, and returns home to her husband.

Monday afternoon brings Jeff and Emily back to the office of the second doctor, where the results of the biopsy are disclosed.  The tumor is indeed small, and only pre-cancerous.  While it is puzzling that the first series of tests could have produced such a dramatically different set of results, the couple returns home, able to breathe easier now.  The reprieve is short-lived, however, as Emily wakes up that very night with severe abdominal pains, and Jeff must take her straight to the emergency room.

After a torturous night of waiting and pacing, Jeff is informed that the abdominal pains were caused by an inflamed appendix, which was removed simultaneously with the pre-cancerous tumor.  A full recovery from the surgery will take several weeks, but everyone agrees it is a small price to pay, considering she once again has a full life ahead of her.

As has been the norm, though, the joy does not last for long.  While in recovery, two new painful discoveries come to light.  First, the reason Emily was falsely diagnosed with advanced cancer was that her hospital records had been switched with that of her new friend Emma, meaning that it is Emma who had been dying all along, and has less than three months to live.  Second, the trace on the divorce e-mail reveals that during her absence, Emily had been at the house of a former boyfriend.  As Emily cries for forgiveness, all Jeff can do is leave the hospital.

Emily returns home soon after to continue her recovery, and explains to Jeff that she only spent one night in her ex-boyfriend's house, and that only out of desperation.  She had left the next day and spent the rest of her absence in the home of her boss, a married high school principal.  She tells Jeff she has no knowledge of the e-mail, but guesses her ex-boyfriend still had ambitions of getting back together with her and had sent the e-mail to instigate a further rift between her and Jeff, being completely unaware of Emily's cancer diagnosis.

Emily is forgiven, not only by Jeff, but also by her friends and family also.  Their home life finally on the mend, the agree that they should do all they can to help David and Emma, who are now facing the deadly disease they thought had threatened Emily, and with considerably less time.  At first David is resistant to any help, despite being in dire financial straits.  When Emma's condition takes a turn for the worse, however, he changes his mind and readily accepts any help he can get.

For Emily, it is the perfect opportunity to share her faith with a dying Emma, who is now much more receptive to the Gospel than she had been during her recent church visit.  Emma soon accepts Jesus Christ as her savior, just days before the cancer claims her life.  David, who has been unreceptive to the gospel, is caught unprepared, and runs off at the news of his wife's death.

Fearing the worst, Jeff and Emily track him down and are successful in preventing two suicide attempts by David.  However, the second attempt involves a gun, and Jeff is injured during the intervention.  Rather than hold a grudge, Jeff forgives David, and this gesture is what it takes to break down the walls surrounding David's heart.  At Emma's graveside, he accepts Christ as his savior, too.  As they rejoin the funeral services, Jeff reflects on the events of the past few months, and can finally see how God orchestrated a series of seemingly tragic circumstances and used them to bring people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  God truly did have a purpose for everything.