Relishing in His Goodness: The Golden Jubilee of Marriage

I believe that the heart of a long, happy, and fruitful marriage is a love that mirrors God's own unfailing love for us. Fifty plus years of marriage is a testament of the willingness to honor our Father and one another in faith, hope, and love. The longevity of a fifty plus year marriage is an encouragement of God's word: a reminder of the eternal nature of love, and an ever-encouraging testament to honor one's marriage vows. An inspiration to a world so quick to crumble when the going gets tough.

On December 28, 1973 two young people stood at the front of a church altar, in the presence of their loved ones, and exchanged wedding vows that they meant to keep. Fifty-one years later, they sat side-by-side in their church's fellowship hall, clad in fancy clothes and pretty smiles worn with time, in celebration of their vow honoring accomplishments with a room full of people they've inspired along their way!

Because the date of the celebration fell on the Saturday in between Christmas and New Year's, we weren't sure many people would be able to come. We were quite pleased to see the fellowship hall fill quickly with smiling faces, however. A true testament to the impact the dynamic duo have impressed upon the world around them. I was personally quite honored to stand alongside the love of my life as we celebrated his parents golden jubilee of marriage!

I lovingly refer to them as my mother and father-in-love. In less than two years, Luke's parents have inspired, taught, and have loved the kids and I as their own. I can only imagine what those who have watched them grow in love and life, for all of their fifty years together, would say about them. We were asked if we wanted to share anything aloud, during the party. I knew that if I opened my mouth, the words would spill out an inaudible blubbering mess. Therefore, I stood silently tearful as Luke's sister gave an endearing speech. Thank goodness for outlets that allow me to share my thoughts in the comfort of one plush recliner and in my pj's without another person around to see me get sniffly and emotional. How I love those two precious souls. My reverence for them is fierce and my gratitude to God for creating them even fiercer. Writing about them blesses my soul well.

Here's what I would have said to you two, Mr. Larry and Mrs. Marie, if I were able to follow your precious girl's beautiful speech:

As I looked at photo after photo in your wedding album and then at the two of you, fifty-one years later, my thoughts were as simple as this. "Praise you Father for putting these two people together!" That wedding album showed me two young versions of yourselves who had zero clue of who you'd both be fifty-one years later. Of what life was going to throw your way. Of how much you'd both learn from one another. But those smiles showed excitement and the hope of what was to come together, nonetheless. The versions of you, whom I'm blessed to know today, are full of much more knowledge and life experience. I'm sure there's a ton you'd be able to tell those younger versions of yourselves...but I'm also certain that neither of you would ever choose to do anything differently.

When one gets married, one never imagines how difficult marriage can be. We make vows to love and devote ourselves to one another during our best and worst without ever really imagining the worst. I can only imagine your worst may have consisted of sleep deprivation and late nights with sick babies. Late hours of hard farm work and domesticity. Carpools. School functions and busy schedules to juggle. Health scares. Of course, there is the story you guys have told me of the early years of marriage when Mama Re threw a dense biscuit at a wall after being told that her homemade biscuits weren't "like his mamas". Ha! A fifty plus year marriage is, undoubtedly, slap full of memories, challenges, and triumphs. I am happy to report, sweet readers, that Mama Re did in fact learn how to cook very well. She was and is the quintessential farm wife and I aspire to be just like her someday!

In the short amount of time that I've known you both, I've seen such gentleness and patience exuded. I've seen the way you both look at one another with such familiarity, assurance, and sheer love for one another. I've seen exhaustion in the wake of making certain his bride was well taken care of, after having suffered a stroke, with assiduous persistence. I've seen gratitude and heard the many prayers said for one another and together. I've hung on every word of every memory shared of your fifty plus years. I have personally thanked God again and again and again for creating you two, for putting you together, and for making you Luke's parents. I will forever be grateful for these things and for you both.

Your story. Your love. Fifty-One plus years together. It's an absolute inspiration. As you look back at your life together, I hope that you are both immensely proud of the legacy you've created in the form of your family. Together you raised your children to be thoughtful, hardworking, intelligent, God-loving people. You not only taught them well, but you both exemplified, to your children, what serving God well looks like. You raised a daughter who heads/directs/organizes two large mission groups in Bolivia. She is assertive and intelligent with a diligent heart to serve God as well as her family. You raised a son with a heart of gold who smiles with his pretty blue eyes. Like his parents, he loves God and he's proud of where he comes from. He took on the task of loving a slightly eccentric widowed mama and made her babies his own. And, oh.... how he loves us so incredibly well! He would give anyone the shirt off of his back and would empty his wallet if asked...and do so quietly without needing praise or recognition in return. He is good....just like his mama and daddy.

Selfishly, I want to thank you both for keeping your vows. Thank you for creating the home life that you gave your children. You are beacons who raised beacons. Thank you for raising your babies to be humble servants of the Lord. Thank you for teaching your boy how to love the kids and I so incredibly well. Thank you for standing on solid ground, hand-in-hand, in a world that so easily shakes and crumbles. I had no idea how desperately my babies and I needed you in our lives until God chose it for us. THANK YOU for being the two most loving and active grandparents to Ella and Jacob, that I could have ever imagined for them. I am thankful for every second of your fifty-one years together and for getting to be a small portion of the last nearly two of those fifty-one. You two have made an impact on our hearts that will last us a lifetime, by the grace of God. The strength and longevity of your union, as well as the grace that has sustained you through all of these years is inspirational, to say the least.

Happy anniversary Mama Re and Pops! Fervent prayers for many more years to come. We love you both with bushels of enormity!

Many thanks to those of you who took and shared photos with me so that I could share them here for Larry and Marie. I know they appreciate you all for coming as well as for taking and sharing photos. They are still talking about how much seeing you all blessed them! If anyone reading would like to share more photos for me to add here for them, please feel free to send them to my e-mail address: IStndAmzd79@gmail.com Mama Re frequents my blog and I know she'll love to see all the photos taken at their celebration.

While it was actually their fifty-first anniversary, there was extra emphasis put on their fiftieth since we didn't get to celebrate it last year due to her stroke.