This Thursday, 54 years ago, Mom and Dad walked down an aisle, and verbally, they declared, “I do.”
Their hearts, however, declared, “I will.”
I will love you when we wrestle with the bills.
I will love you when we wrestle with home repairs.
I will love you when we wrestle with poor health.
I will love you when we wrestle with children wrestling with each other.
(Well, the two older children, at least, wrestled with each other. The youngest of the three was no doubt studying the Bible or serving the least of these at a food kitchen or perhaps praying for orphans.)
And I will love you as you walk through the valley of the shadow of cancer 46 years later.
And I will love you when you say goodbye.
But I will tell you I love you again when Jesus returns.
Until He returns, though, I pray that married couples, like my parents, will reflect the love that moved Him to come, suffer, die and now intervene for His bride, the church of God.
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish,” Paul wrote to the Ephesians.
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything,” he also wrote.
I also pray that everyone married to Jesus — whether they ever say “I do” to another person — will tell the world of His love through their love for Him.
Verse 1
O church, God’s precious bride
Through His grace and strength now thrive
Ye servants of God’s Kingdom come
Ye nation of saints rise
Renounce your idols vain
Complacency and fame
Your lust for pleasure, worldly treasures
That fetter you in shame
Chorus
Hallelujah, Father we are Yours
Consecrated, conquering and pure
Verse 2
Unleash God’s vision grand
To redeem all tribes and land
And triumph through disciples who
Love through their Lord’s commands
The blessings we now seek
Reward the poor and meek
The merciful who forgive foes
And overcome with peace
Chorus
Hallelujah, Savior we are Yours
Our faith’s Captain, Cornerstone, the Word
Verse 3
United in the Word
Inspired, true and sure
Refuting lies and compromise
To overcome the curse
O church, God’s precious bride
Through His grace and strength now thrive
Ye servants of God’s Kingdom come
Ye nation of saints rise
Chorus
Hallelujah, Spirit we are Yours
God within us, Guide and Comforter
Chorus
Hallelujah, even so Lord come
And forever, we will live as One
And forever, we will live as One
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