39 Years With Who & What Next?

The last couple of entries, I’ve talked a lot about how a ten-year chapter of life has come to a distinct close. The thing about endings is this: every ending means a new beginning is just around the corner.  That’s a very positive and hopeful statement.

I can tell you this much, our new chapter began with a full week of unpacking, sorting, organizing, remodeling, storing, and filling nooks and crannies.  It began with an encouraging over-night visit from a former dorm son, now teaching university in Somalia.  It began with tying up a lot of loose ends (bills paid, checks written, horses retrieved from summer pasture, lawn mowed, sprinklers re-set, ministry newsletters in the mail).  It began with an anniversary – and, this is where I want to settle this morning.

I have loved this man of mine for almost 43 years.  For 39 of those years, we’ve been married.  I can’t imagine life without him.  I love him more today than yesterday…and I’m fairly certain (based on our track record) that I will love him more tomorrow than today.  Yet, marriage statistics in our country are not thriving.  All around us marriages are dissolving.  We haven’t had a perfect marriage, by any means, but the Lord, in his goodness, is “perfecting” the relationship we have.  What has been the key?  I was pondering that question as I opened up my Bible to begin a new Scripture-journey into the book of Matthew. 

If anyone had a relationship doomed to failure it would be Mary and Joseph (see Matthew chapter 1:18-25).  They had so many strikes against them: an engagement planned by their families, a pregnancy out of wedlock, an unbelievable story, a non-typical pregnancy, stress upon stress, rejection, a peculiar calling, forced travel in a Roman occupied land, no hospital in which to give birth, let alone a room to sleep in – and this was before the baby came.  Yet, one thing struck me as I read through that passage.  It came in the words of the angel who told Joseph, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means, ‘God with us.’”  Those words stirred a new courage inside Joseph, a courage that lasted for the duration of his marriage to Mary.  They were words that rang reminiscent of similar ones to a man named Joshua, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous!  Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9).”   Who can be afraid with Immanuel?  What can creep in and tear apart when clinging to Immanuel?  Nothing is impossible with God!

As I glance back at 39 years, the one unchanging denomination has been God-With-Us.  We have lived in uncertainty, yet absolutely certain of the ONE who is ordaining every step.  In spite of the ups and downs of life, the stress, the difficulties, the travel to foreign lands, the calling on our life, we have trusted in the fact that God.Is.With.Us.  In this one Word, Immanuel, we have always, always been on the same page. Just as with Joseph, & Mary, it stirs courage within us to keep on keeping on.

So, this new season of life has started, just as we begin our 40^th year of marriage.  I trust my man, because he trusts Immanuel.  Without trust, there can be no marriage.  Without trust, there would be no new chapter to write.  So, the story continues...