Missing Them

Wednesday, February 10, 2016, 5:01 pm

Normally on a day like today I would be home, sitting down to a home cooked meal prepared by my wife surrounded by my six children. Today, though, I am at the church, preparing sermons a couple of weeks in advance. Why? Because they are gone. They are gone because of one very special person who make so much of my life better. One person who nearly 24 years ago I asked to join me on an incredible journey, and she said "yes."

She said "yes" not because she knew what was coming (truth be known, if she knew what was coming, she might have had a different answer), but because she knew the one who was asking her. To this day I can't understand what would have possessed her to want to spend the rest of her life with me, but she said "yes".

Nearly 24 years later we are still together, traveling on this road of life and experiencing the journey's ups and downs. Six times we have experienced the joy of welcoming a new life into the world. We have celebrated 22 wonderful anniversaries and look forward to the next 22. We've celebrated 102 birthdays all tolled and we have had 24 Christmases as well. Much of the life's journey we have been happy, but not all.

There have been heartaches along the way. Sometimes pain caused by us, sometimes pain caused by others. We've seen God at work and watched His hand bring about amazing results. We've also been in the valley when God was hard to see. We've lost some of those whom we loved, and we've been able to see the lost, found.

But the one constant that has always been with us throughout these past 24 years since the day I asked my beloved to be my bride is this: God has never left us, nor forsaken us. He is the constant One, and the never-changing God! He is full of mercy and compassion. He disciplines those He loves and we are His children...the objects of that love. He is the foundation of our marriage and He will continue to be so.

And because of her love for me and for her family, she has willingly sacrificed nearly a month of her life to (for lack of a better way to put it) be a chauffeur for my three oldest children. They were involved in a play (HPA's production of The Secret Garden) back in Michigan before we moved. We both felt God telling us that it was important for them to continue in that production as they only had a month left until the performances. During the month of January, my bride drove from IL to MI and back again 3 times, stayed with her parents approximately 25 days, slept on a pull out couch during that time, transported the children to and from practices, performances and parties, washed clothes, put up with hassles from outside the family as well as inside, and all in all kept her composure with grace and dignity. I love my wife for her sacrifice, and I love my kids as well. I can not wait to have them back with me so that I can show them just how much I have missed them.

Thank you, Lord for Your grace and for giving me the best family any man should ever have.

"God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'"  --Hebrews 13:5