Has it already been seven complete trips around the sun with this ring on my finger and you by my side? Seven years since we said, “I do,” and “Till death parts us,” and “For better or for worse.” Seven years since our brother sang ‘Abide with Me’ and the two of us mysteriously became just one?
We explain it to the kids that today is our birthday, our together birthday, and that we’re turning seven together. I must admit it that I feel this way-a bit like a 2nd grader.
Those first few years of cooing and babbling and bawling and learning to move seem farther away. I can still remember the preschool years of our oneness-learning to share and play together, to read each other and walk at the same pace.
Are we already this far in? Is it time to do complex math and read bigger books, time to climb higher walls and take bigger dares together, is it time to do play more than chopsticks on the piano? When did it happen-when did God take off the training wheels and send us spinning into this world of work and raising children? How did we turn so quickly from toddling into a full out three legged race?
I have to say it: these days are hard days. They are good but they are hard. (Is anything good not?) Most days, I wake up and it’s hard to find my song. I can honestly do little but just ask God for help. And almost immediately thereafter remember you-how He’s helped me by giving me to you. Slowly, the song comes. It’s ironic, really. I’m supposed to be your helper and yet find myself as the one helped.
The backwards math of a union in Christ surprises me still.
When I lose myself, I’m really found.
When I serve, I end up the one helped.
When I boast in weakness, I find strength.
When I give myself to you fully, I receive back more than I had at the start.
Could my noise and your noise really become a song?
As we run into this 8th year together, I’m praying for this-more oneness. If Christ lingers another year and grants us one more trip around the sun, the good and the hard days are certain to come. I’m sure we’ll lose some teeth and skin our knees, certain we’ll fail some tests and forget our homework. This three legged race may trip us up and find us rolling in the dirt at some point. We may sound more like a noisemaker than a flute at times. But my hope for this eighth year is this-Christ in you, Christ in me, Christ mysteriously taking our noise and turning it into one beautiful song.
You said it best-not a marriage that survives, but a union that sings.
Lord, grant us this, in all of this good hard, let our union make music, a song of salvation. Let our marriage sing the melody, the song of songs-that through Christ, God can take our humble pieces and put us together into an instrument of praise.
The LORD is {our} strength and {our} song; he has become {our} salvation. Psalm 118:4
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Pray with us for Nicaragua today, that even in poverty and strife, God would direct these people to the good hard-that they would sing the song of Christ.
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Beautiful imagery! Loved this! Happy Anniversary!