February 23, 2019
As I begin this busy day with a moment of quiet and contemplation, I look over at the middle-aged man drinking coffee in the armchair next to me, I am filled with a deep sense of contentment and gratitude. We have been companions for almost 29 years and I honoured to know he is my husband.
And as my thoughts continue to wander, I realize that we both come from a heritage of people who had long and committed marriages, marriages that survived and flourished in spite of ocean travels to new worlds and raging storms on a prairie homestead filled with 12 children!
And then of course my thoughts turn towards my own parents who have been married for over 60 years. They are my favourite people to double-date with, not just because my dad always pays the bill but because we learn from them every time we are with them. My precious fella lost his own dad far too soon and has been blessed with a dad-friend in my own pa.
Years ago, a certain teenager was dared to ask a certain school teacher out an a date and then this happened:
circa 1958
circa 1958
Their life together had held much joy, times of challenge, occasions of despair and events that have filled them with profound contentment and hope. And when asked how they have navigated this wonderful but crazy thing called marriage, my parents will always say they have been totally dependent on a Third Party.
And now as their daughter and as witness, I can say that the Third Party created them for each other and brought them together for a greater purpose than they could ever have possibly imagined! (I have borrowed these word from another piece of writing that was shared with me.)
What an adventure they continue to live! 5 kids, lots of grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren! Friends who are family and family who are friends, and an enduring walk with the Friend of Friends. They have showed me the reality of a faith that endures and grows - they are the most authentic Christ-followers I know. They are not perfect, they make mistakes and they are getting older. But they are His and they are each other’s. And as a super bonus they are, in some ways, mine too!
My parents enjoy each other, they go on ‘dates’ to the US and they tease each other. They are best friends, and they love each other so much more than they did when they first began!
December 2018
And so in the way they often pray for others, this is my prayer for you on this very special, a day when yet another member is added to their ever-growing family tent.
May you, having been deeply rooted and securely grounded in love, be fully capable of comprehending the width and length and height and depth of His love, fully experiencing that amazing, endless love; and that you may come to know practically, through personal experience, the love of Christ which far surpasses mere knowledge, that you may be filled throughout your being to all the fullness of God so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself. (Eph. 3:17-19)
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