I love my husband.
Maybe it's because I was gone all weekend at a women's conference and missed him. Maybe it's because I arrived home last night at 2:something a.m. and had to go to church and teach Sunday school this morning, so instead of listening intently to his sermon, I watched him preach. Maybe it's because I shared parts of our dating story with my girlfriends during our drive home from this conference. Maybe it's because this man who had to do a wedding, rehearsal and dinner, finish preparing a Sunday morning sermon, take Abby to where she would get a ride to a volleyball game, take Emma to violin lessons, take all of the girls to the home of the (may God's blessings abound to these people) wonderful family who watched the girls while he worked... truly hoped I would have a wonderful time at this conference. We didn't quite realize all of the schedule conflicts back when the conference tickets were bought.
As I watched him preach this morning I thought about how I love growing with him. I thought about how handsome he looked up there without his glasses (don't get me wrong, the glasses are dashing, too; I'm just telling you what I was thinking). I thought about how much I love our conversations and how far we've come from our dating days. I thought about how happy (genuinely happy) I am to be on this adventure of life together.
On Thursday before we left for the conference, I decided to go for a run and release those stress endorphins or free radicals or whatever they are. It was so good to once again run out in the beauty of our Hesston arboretum filled with native Kansas vegetation surrounding a large pond. I noticed an older couple up ahead of me, and as I neared them I noticed a sweet little lady in a wheelchair being ever-so-tenderly pushed along by her husband who looked tremendously old.
I honestly don't know if I have ever seen two more beautiful smiles than on the faces of these two. I felt I was invading a private moment as I ran by them. He was talking to her, slowly pushing her chair, taking in the birds. Just as I felt I should reverently turn around, they both looked up at me with more genuine joy in their faces than I can describe. I felt almost as if they were inviting me into their joy, sharing a bit of it with me. These faces had been trained into such smiles that I couldn't imagine how that expression could possibly be contorted into dislike or general discontentedness.
I ran by them once more, this time at the place where the path is right up next to the water. This man had pushed his wife close and pointed, as he tucked his cheek right next to her temple, talking about what he was seeing in the water. This was beyond sweet, this was romantic. This couple once again beamed up at me as I ran by, and I thought, "They can't help it."
Whatever has gone on in their life, they can't get over each other and they can't get over smiling. They hadn't stopped talking to each other, because there was still so much life to enjoy together right there at the Hesston arboretum.
Maybe that's what I was thinking about.
2 comments:
I like what you were thinking about during the sermon! I have a feeling your pastor-husband likes it too! Thanks for sharing! Darin and I get so much encouragement from couples who have been married so long and have such great love for each other still!
That's a mighty cute picture of you and the preacher formerly known as Bartimaeus - I only have a tiny version of it from last year's Christmas collage. I think I'll have your daddy print out a bigger one for me.
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