Repost: In Celebration of...

In Celebration of… Posted on November 19, 2011 by Beth Brawley Taylor
How do you account for twenty-three years of life with another human being?  Society suggests celebrating the number of years you have been married and we do so with the giving of cards and gifts, having dinner out somewhere fancy or taking a trip somewhere you have never been together.  All of those things are fine and we have done them all (although I am still holding out for that trip to NYC together) but it would seem that merely counting years together is not near enough…it doesn’t do justice to the life you have lived together. For me, I am celebrating all the triumphs we have lived together, not just the years.  I am celebrating…
…a rock-solid friendship that was formed before romance became reality
…a marriage that was crafted on the firm foundation of promising to following God anywhere, anytime and at any cost
…the creating of three imperfect little boys who have brought us the most perfect of joy
…the beautiful heartache of bringing one of our parents into the warm embrace of our own home for a year only to see them live and breathe their last
… surviving disappointments, failures and starting over again with nothing in our pockets
…moving forward when the fog was so thick we couldn’t see one step in front of us
…the churches God has allowed us to serve together and the immense family that we have been privileged to be part of for ever and always
…the broken parts of ourselves that we have allowed the other to not only see but to touch and to even love, bringing His wholeness where only hollowness once was
…you…this man who is so much more than anything my sixteen-year-old heart could have dreamed up and who has loved me so completely with a passion only rivaled by God himself. I wish for every person the indescribable reality of love and grace we have in our own marriage…not perfection or fairytale days and nights, but a life of  chasing the dreams God has given us and finding that, in running hard after God, we run right into each other. Happy 23rd Anniversary, Eddie. 
I love you completely, and only less than Him.