“We both knew that it was going to work, we just had no idea how.”
Although having only known each other for 17 months, Ezra and Maddie Short have had to overcome more than most couples in 17 years, including a distance of 6,756 miles, 13 broken bones and a war.
“We knew each other for 11 months when we got married, and even though we have known each other for that long, we have already been through so many things that long-time couples would have gone through,” Ezra said, who works at Union as a maintenance technician. “We have gotten to see parts of each other that we would not have seen if things did not happen the way that they did.”
Sitting in the chair next to him, his wife Maddie nodded, as if he had taken the words right out of her mouth. When they were not nodding in agreement, they were finishing each other’s sentences seamlessly, playing off of each other in a way that was reminiscent of Dwayne Wade and Lebron James on the Miami Heat.
The two got married in April of 2024 after a four-wheeler accident left Maddie with 13 broken bones — including a broken pelvis, vertebrae and sacrum — which would end up allowing Ezra to extend what was originally a one-week travel visa.
“When she was laying there on the ground after the accident, one of the first things she asked me was, ‘Does this mean you’ll stay longer?’ And I said, ‘I hope so.’” Ezra grinned at his wife. “She had a walker, which was so embarrassing.”
“If I have to use a walker, I’m not getting married,” Maddie said.
“She had to use the walker or wear the back brace,” Ezra said. “She stopped wearing the back brace long before the doctor said that she should.”
“It didn’t match my dress.”
The newlyweds stayed with Maddie’s parents all summer, moving into Union’s married housing in August, where Ezra started working as a maintenance technician for the school’s facilities management and where Maddie continued her education as a sophomore psychology major.
The Shorts had recently celebrated their six-month wedding anniversary — when seven months ago, they were not planning on getting married for another two years. Although they had no idea what the Lord had in store for them, they knew from the moment they met that it would be with each other.
“We were pretty set on it when we first met. That’s another thing that helped our long-distance relationship.” Maddie said. “We never had to question: is this going to work out? It was just, okay, we just have to get through this hard part right now, and then we know we’re going to be together.”
They first met in May 2023, while Maddie was on a mission trip with her church in Israel staying at the Baptist Convention Center where Ezra worked. Ezra was helping direct the service efforts of Maddie’s church, and the two hit it off immediately.
“The day that I met Ezra — that night, my mom and I were sharing a room, and she said, ‘It’s time to go to sleep. You need to get some beauty rest, because you might meet your Jewish husband tomorrow,'” Maddie said. “And I turned and I looked at her, and without even thinking, I said, ‘Oh, I already have.’”
After Maddie’s trip ended, they started FaceTiming each other consistently. That fall, Maddie began her freshman year at Union, and Ezra continued working, serving as a reserve in the Israeli Air Force. Ezra had arranged to visit Maddie during her fall break, but on October 7th, Israel was attacked in what would spark the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
“I was actually on the phone with her when it all started. I woke up at 6:30 am,” Ezra said. “I went down to the bomb shelter and we heard the explosions, then it settled in. We are under attack. For real.”
“The war in Israel started, and he got called up into Air Force duty, so he wasn’t able to make it,” Maddie said. “We didn’t know when we would see each other again.”
Ezra’s role in the Air Force was to be a morale booster. As one of the only believers in his unit, and one of what is roughly 2% of Christians in all of Israel, Ezra took on the difficult task of spreading the hope of Christ in a way that resonated with unbelievers while also stewarding a long-distance relationship during a time of war.
“Knowing that God has a plan for Israel, knowing that God has a plan for me,” Ezra said. “I don’t really get scared about death, because if I died then fine. That’s God’s plan. If he wants that to happen, who am I to say anything against that? I had the same kind of mindset about our relationship: I’m doing this for the Lord, and I know that he has control over everything.”
The eight-hour time difference between Israel and Jackson, Tennessee made communication difficult.
“Neither of us was getting much sleep because we wanted to take advantage of the time we had, and she wasn’t getting much studying done because she wanted to talk to me as much as she could,” Ezra said. “It was not an easy semester. Let’s say that.”
Despite the distance, both Maddie and Ezra were unshaken.
“It is a commitment, really just a renewal of that. First you like each other, then you love each other and you keep choosing to,” Ezra said. “It was not a matter of if, but a matter of how.”
The two got engaged on Christmas Day, as soon as Ezra could finally visit. The next time they saw each other was in March 2024, when the couple stayed at Maddie’s parents’ house for what was meant to be a one-week visit. Instead, Ezra and Maddie got into a four-wheeler accident.
“I was trying to impress her,” Ezra said, nodding at Maddie, “And I lost control of the four-wheeler.”
They hit a pipe at the bottom of a hill and tumbled out of the vehicle. Ezra, previously an acrobat and a gymnast, landed safely. Maddie did not, breaking thirteen bones.
“My family jokes that he flew like Spiderman, and I flew like Raggedy Ann,” Maddie said.
After the accident, the two decided to get married as fast as possible, allowing Ezra to extend his stay in the United States and care for his fiancé.
“We got married in my backyard,” Maddie said. “We had my family over, and my youth pastor and his wife came and he married us, and then we just had ice cream in my kitchen afterward. It was a really fun day.”
As they told me their story, laughing and exchanging smiles with each other, I could not shake the feeling that they too were still marveling at it — not as a testament of their own strength or commitment, but of God’s provision and faithfulness.
That faithfulness can be summed up by the canvas sign hanging in the corner of their living room:
“I trust the next chapter because I know the author.”