Anniversary Roses

There's a new post over on http://gertslabach.snappages.com/front-porch-swing-blog.htm
But, for now, you can also read it here.

this photo collage was created using canva.com

Roses.  I do like roses.

‘Especially on our anniversary, my birthday, on Mother’s day, or other special times, like the births of our babies.  

I used to tell folks that when I wanted a dozen roses, all I had to do was have another baby.  While it’s true that six times over roses were waiting for me when I get back from Labor and Delivery, it’s also true that I don’t get roses for every birthday, every anniversary, or every Mother’s day. 

You know what makes the roses so special?  The fact that, on any other day when there are no roses, he is in my corner.  Any other day when I’m unkempt and the house is a mess, he helps pick up the pieces and puts me back together again.  Any other day when there is no wafting fragrance in the house, he becomes the fragrance by serving me, again.

The man’s rather imperfect, and so is his wife.  Imagine that.  Even so, in a world of strife, marriages that have dissolved or marriages that are falling apart, we are blessed.

Like so many other marriages, ours could simply be a statistic.  It’s not that we’re so smart or so special.  It’s that God is.  When you go to God for help, when you really seek for wisdom, when you truly apply what you know to do even when you don’t feel like it, then you find that marriage can be done well.

There have been days when I’ve stormed the gates of Heaven, asking God to show me how to understand and love this man.  Every time I have asked, He has given me answers.  ‘Not that I always liked the answers or felt like following the directions, mind you.  But every time I’ve asked for wisdom, He has given what I’ve needed. ‘Trouble is that sometimes we just don’t bother to ask.

Our marriage bed is not an array of roses minus thorns.  It’s a fragrance that comes when the petals are crushed as I  becomes us.  It’s a fragrance that comes when making love is not so much about “everything is perfect and we’ve got it all together” as it is about “even though we are frustrated with each other, we are still committed to each other; so tonight making love to you is a great way to emphasize that commitment.” 

Thirty years ago today in a small town in western Maryland, in the church where my parents were married many years before, we tied the knot.  Amid freshly-fallen snow, family and friends, we celebrated.

We celebrate today, and I enjoy the roses and their perfume.  Today especially, we celebrate the greatest fragrance of all:  the faithfulness of God.