For 29 Valentine’s Days, she’s been my very own.
28 years of marriage, six kids birthed and raised and launched, several others by fostering and accepting and encouraging, 11 different homes, 12 vehicles, 8 church families, a few epic arguments, buckets and buckets of tears and a whole lot more laughter… and counting.
To look back at those wedding photos, it’s clear we were just kids. We were so excited to launch into this life together and had no idea what was in store. I thought I loved her then, but now more than ever.
She came across this song today and shared it and I listened… and cried.
(If you know me at all, you’re not surprised. I’m a cryer. It is what it is.)
It’s by a duo known as Out of the Dust. It says so much about where we are in life. You just need to give it a listen.
A marriage is intended by its Designer to be a place of absolute vulnerability and familiarity…
Darling, here we are You know every strength and every scar You’re seeing every part
It’s not a place that is found and fueled by feelings. It’s a decision to daily choose what is best for your partner…
Feelings change but that’s when love will say Now more than ever Write it on my heart for when it’s hard and we forget Through joy and pain love will whisper Now more than ever
But there’s so much more here.
This marriage thing (as I seem to be writing over and over again) is not simply a thing people decided to do. It’s not a societal construct or a cultural feature. It was the very first human relationship and it was created with a deep and powerful purpose—beyond procreation and comfort and companionship.
Marriage was made to show us our deep, deep need and God’s grand and glorious provision…
It’s still a mystery That heaven fights through hell to help us see There’s more than you and me Our love is prophecy It shows a broken world how it could be It speaks through you and me
This indescribably precious gift that is my marriage is a vehicle through which God shows me my need for His redeeming and transforming grace, through which He shows me my need to live for someone beyond myself, through which He shows me how much He loves me.
It is my deep desire that everyone that knows us will see these truths in our marriage, that you will hear the song that we were made to sing…
Now more than ever.
