Still Holding Hands

The other day driving back from the beach an amazing sunset stretched before us. I quickly pulled out my camera and started clicking away. The way the night descends on earth is nothing short of an artistic masterpiece.

For me, it was like a love letter from the Lord. Though no words flashed across the sky, there was clearly a message in this beauty.

My mind was drawn back to many years. Fifteen and half years ago to be exact... December 5, 1992. A young couple stood at the alter having no clue what the vows they nervously repeated meant. "To have and to hold from this day forward"... it was just what the pastor said so they repeated it back in a clueless kind of way.

They felt in love. A giddy kind of electric current drew them together. They liked what they got from each other. It just felt right.

Little did they know that you don't feel your way into real love. You choose your way into real love.

I should look at the verses of 1 Corinthians 13 and realize it is not a wish list of how I hope Art will treat me. Rather it is a list of choices I must make of how I will treat him.

Instead of reading it... "Your love should be kind and patient and not keep a record of wrongs."

I must make the choice instead to say... "I am making the choice that my love will be kind. My love will be patient. And I will choose not to keep a record of wrongs."

Sometimes I wish I could go back and talk to my bride self. I would tell her to especially listen to the words of the prayer that Art's Dad prayed over us. There were many threads of wisdom with which a couple could weave together a banner to place before them... to be a reminder of the sacred vows and promises being made.

In one part of the prayer Mr. TerKeurst said, "And then when the sun is setting and the years have gone by, may this couple be found then as now standing together, still hand in hand, still thanking God for each other."

Something about that sunset love letter from God the other night made my breath catch in my throat. For I suddenly remembered that wedding day prayer. And I must admit I felt convicted.

Somehow in the craziness of life's schedule, I couldn't remember the last time we just took time to hold hands and talk about us. Not our teenager's choices, or the broken down car, or why there are so many weeds this year, or how did your meeting go today, or did you return that video back to the store... not that kind of conversation. No, I mean the kind of conversation that seems harder and harder to find time for in the midst of life.

The kind of conversation that we are overdue for is the kind you remember and treasure and hold on to. For another day will surely come where these conversations will be the sweetest of all our memories. The day when the sun sets on our lives and one of us will lay the other in the arms of Jesus...may it be so with no regrets.