I Marry You Because. . .

-12° and two feet of snow!  It was 1979. No one would attend our wedding ceremony. 

Amazingly, 125 people braved the elements to join us in a celebration of love in a beautiful, historical chapel (St. James) in Boardman Park, Youngstown, Ohio, on February 10, 1979.  It’s hard to believe that 38 years have zoomed by and if both my knees weren’t bad and your back was in good shape, we’d still be dancing!!

Jobs, full-time ministry, heartaches, thrills, celebrations, friends, three children, sports,  four grandblessings, assorted  pets, 6 homes (2 rentals and 4 our own), good times, not-so-good times, tears and laughter, sickness, surgeries, good health and bad, for better – for worse. . .we’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord, and He has never, ever failed us yet.

I think of Thornton Wilder’s writing: “I didn’t marry you because you were perfect.  I didn’t even marry you because I loved you. (Even though I do and have been wild about you for 38 years.) I married you because you gave me a promise.  That promise made up for your faults.  And the promise I gave you made up for mine.  Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.  And when our children were growing up, it wasn’t a house that protected them; and it wasn’t our love that protected them – it was that promise.”

You are still the first person I want to look at when I wake up in the morning and the only one I want to kiss goodnight.  The first time I held your hands I could not imagine not being able to hold them.  Our love has been a transformation over time.  We aren’t the “kids” in our 20’s any more, but we are like good, fine wine that has aged well; its fragrance and aroma arouses the senses and soothes the palate as it is tasted.

Our hearts wear no watches  - our love is timeless, not measured in years, yet sometimes like the Timex – “it takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’!  We certainly have been resonant and our relationship a mutual understanding of trust and agreement.

When I look at us, I do not see the age, the limps, the wrinkles, the pain. . . I see us – our hands touch, our hearts linked -  forever and always, two “kids” in love out to conquer the world with our dreams. 

I take this man to be my husband, my friend, and my love?  I affirm this relationship we have enjoyed to deepen and to strengthen it.  I will be yours in plenty and in want, in good health and in bad, in triumphs and in failures.  I will cherish you, love you, respect you, comfort you and encourage you from this day forth. . .I did and I still do!

Happy 38^th anniversary my love!