Who knew that teeth could heal a marriage?

If you have seen my first film Finger of God, you know how it begins. I introduce you to my aunt and uncle, who both miraculously got gold teeth while in church. When people hear that for the first time, there’s the inevitable double take, followed by the, “Wait, what?” And then I smile kindly and explain that, yes, I meant what I said. They walked into church with normal teeth and left with gold teeth. Usually, the people just look at me blankly then because this just isn’t computing.

It all started when my family discovered the “Toronto Blessing” that began in 1994 at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, during a visit by guest speaker Randy Clark. Revival broke out, all kinds of craziness ensued, and many, many people spent the next decade debating if this was God or not.

For the purposes of this story, though, let’s just focus on two people who went to Toronto because they had heard that God was moving and they were in desperate need for a touch from Him.

I’ve known Aunt Patsy and Uncle Bob, obviously, for my entire life. We have a pretty tight-knit family, and even though we never lived near each other, we always tried hard to do vacations or summer breaks together.

Pat and Bob, like most married couples, loved each other but had their own issues that made marriage difficult at times. The season that led them to get on a plane and fly to Toronto was perhaps one of the hardest in their entire marriage, and they knew they were at a crossroads. Either God was going to show up in some way for them on this trip, or that was probably going to be it for their marriage.

So often, when we’re faced with acts of God that don’t make a lot of sense on the surface, we wind up spending a lot of time and energy agonizing over whether or not God “would do something like that” as if we somehow have a solid understanding of God’s way of thinking in all situations.

But when you can actually stop and hear the backstory of the person the weird thing is happening to, it actually becomes much more clear not only that God did this thing, but even on some level why He did it. Pat and Bob are a perfect example.

Growing up, I always looked at my aunt Patsy as a kind of “super Christian”. She was very devout, loved the Lord and tried hard to raise her family in the ways of God, sometimes even bordering on fundamentalism.

Bob was a little more complicated. He came from a rough childhood, and as a result carried a lot of hurt and pain with him into the relationship, which obviously spilled over to cause hurt and pain in both himself and his marriage. Frustration was the common denominator, and Pat just wanted Bob to wake up but Bob never really felt worthy of the Father’s love because of his past.

Cue Toronto.

They go to the church, and that evening Pat walked out with one gold tooth, while Bob got two.
They still have them to this day, over 10 years later. But God isn’t interested in the miracle as much as He is in the heart of the person He’s giving the miracle to.

About a week after this very bizarre thing happened to them, God gave each of them a prophetic word and the reason why He did this for them.

The word was simple, yet it cut to the heart of both of them.

For Pat, it was a simple gift from a Father to His daughter, not a payment for good service, but a blessing because of how much He loves her. For Bob, who has never felt on par with his wife spiritually, has always felt like God loved her more than him (case in point, after Pat got her gold tooth, no one bothered to look in Bob’s mouth until they were leaving late that night), God gave him two. A double portion. It was a lesson in the Father’s heart that He doesn’t play favorites, and your performance doesn’t affect His love for you.

Needless to say, Pat and Bob are both still married today, and this event was one of the main catalysts to the restoration of their marriage. Obviously there are still ups and downs as there is in every marriage, but this time, they are weathering them with the firm understanding of who they are in Christ. And that is the beginning of all breakthroughs in our lives.

Darren Wilson

Darren Wilson is the Founder and Director at WP Films, a media company with a very clear mission: ask questions about God that no one else will. He has traveled the world since 2006 creating various feature-length documentaries, including Finger of God, Furious Love, Father of Lights, Holy Ghost, and Holy Ghost Reborn. Darren is also the author of the books ​Filming God and Finding God in the Bible.