Glad for 35 Years

When I was 10 years old my dad became the pastor of Butte Community Bible Church in Butte, Nebraska. We moved 600 miles from the Texas panhandle to Butte, population about 500 souls, and spent 5.5 years there.

That's a big chunk of one's childhood and youth, and the source of lots of stories, but the most important thing that happened to me in Butte was meeting Valerie Hansen.

She was a year older and consequently, for almost the entire time of our sojourn in that little town, just out of my reach. Nevertheless, I was smitten from the beginning. There was never anyone else for me almost from the first time I saw her. But less than six months remained of that 5.5 years before I finally wore down her resistance to the idea of dating a younger guy.

We married in the church in Butte on June 8, 1973. My dad performed the ceremony and we honeymooned in Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

That was 35 years ago and I'm still smitten.

Marriage is a thing of wonder. Like everything else in creation, it's a physical picture of something invisible, something too profound to imagine, something God wanted us to see every day to remind us of an eternal truth.

For example, vines we have to picture that Jesus is the source of life to us and we need to cling to him ("abide in me" he said) and draw his life to bear fruit so the world can partake of him.

Bread pictures that he is sustenance for us. Seeds and soil show us that from death comes life. Stars depict that vast company of angels who constantly do his bidding. Etc. Etc.

And as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, the great mystery of marriage is that it pictures the love between Jesus Christ and his people.

Look around and you will quickly see how many people are hungry for community, for relationship, for comfort, for unconditional love … all these are part of a good marriage, and all these are offered in the community of believers (the bride of Christ). And all these we can demonstrate in our marriages.

Valerie and I just spent 48 hours celebrating that. We were at a highly popular vacation destination--the Oregon coast--where it rained and blew and stayed below 55 degrees virtually the whole time. The picture is very representative. (It's also the only one we took!)

But, horrible weather notwithstanding, we just enjoyed being together without responsibilities for a couple of days.

I still can't believe she fell for me. But I'm glad.

I'm really glad.