Our anniversary is on Saturday and I was going to grace you with a wedding photo, but decided to save you from it instead. Think: BIG dress and BIG hair for the bride. BIG glasses for the groom. Sound attractive? Then you’re not thinking hard enough.
Despite the 80′s fashion and the fact that we look so young and fragile in the pictures, I really did love our wedding. It was beautiful in a lot of conventional ways, but it was also beautiful in this one intangible way: I felt God there. Really. I felt Him right there on the stage as we said the vows we had always dreamed of saying and promised to love, hold and help each other through all the thick and thin of the days that would come.
Do you promise to love, honor and care for each other in poverty and wealth, sickness and health til death parts you? “I do,” said I. “I do,” said my beloved.
And that’s when I heard it. Sweet and soft, in the back corners of my heart: “I do, too,” said the God who loves love. He said ‘yes’ to all the better and worse we would face. He promised to have and hold us. To keep and guide us. To shelter and sustain us for every day of the life we would make together. Knowing that we could never – on our own – actually do all that we were promising to do, He came ready to fill the gaps with grace.
Of all the things that I know God is, the one that is most dear to me today is that He is a God who loves covenants. Not contracts that are signed on the dotted line, but covenants that are etched in the depths of our will. He loves when humans say yes to the long haul, to real relationship and to courageous commitment. It’s not natural to love like that, it’s supernatural and so He blesses it with supernatural resources.
So, today I’m thankful for Steve, but I am even more thankful for the God who saved us from the train wreck we would have created without Him. I’m glad He came to our wedding and the births of our babies and to ordinary days and hard nights and bounced checks and hospital waiting rooms and all the days that have filled the pages of our story. He came, and He brought gifts of grace that remain.
For love,
Bo
Wow Bo. This is beautiful. My husband and I celebrate or tenth anniversary tomorrow. And where I wish I could say God was at our wedding, I can’t. But I can say that after eight years of struggle He joined us in or journey. It took so much prayer and waiting on God to intervene but when He showed up He came with bang! May He bless your years to come and Happy Anniversary
Thank for your openess and wisdom. Your inspire me.
Sarah, I don’t know you, but after reading Bo’s post, and seeing your reply, I had to tell you something I think is pretty cool: God WAS at your wedding — in some way, He was there. Whether you realized or recognized it or not, He was there. Before you found Him, He’d already found you!
The life you now have in Him is proof that He was there all along. Blessings to you and your husband, Vangi
Wonderful reminder that above all GOD IS LOVE’ That is truly the essence of God. If it were not so, He would have cast off the Israelites when they forsook Him and His ways, He would not have the patience He does with us, and He wouldn’t have made us able to love. My constant prayer over the past few months is that He would help me love more intimately, more wholly, more fully than I ever have in the past. Thanks for writing what you did, Bo.
Thank you Bo. We’re approaching our 5th anniversary next month and as I read your post I had such a vivid and fresh memory of our own wedding, and even the speeches at our reception. There was an incredible tangible presence of God there – unlikely people even commented on it. I haven’t thought about that element for a while now, so it is so good to be triggered to remembrance. I certainly have a wonderful marriage and am exceedingly grateful that God said “I do, too” to us as well. Gosh, He’s good.
Happy anniversary to you – such a special couple. I hope it is a sweet, sweet day as you celebrate another milestone. xxo
Happy anniversary to you and Steve and GOD! Love you all!
I hope your anniversary was incredible:) Trey and I are just two and a half years into the great adventure together and I can’t imagine doing it apart from God and his grace. Love the whole blog, but especially love this paragraph.
“And that’s when I heard it. Sweet and soft, in the back corners of my heart: “I do, too,” said the God who loves love. He said ‘yes’ to all the better and worse we would face. He promised to have and hold us. To keep and guide us. To shelter and sustain us for every day of the life we would make together. Knowing that we could never – on our own – actually do all that we were promising to do, He came ready to fill the gaps with grace.”
Thank you so much for this post.
After 27 years on February 14th I know God is in the midst of everything and our ways are not his. Often I ponder over the mistakes I have made and how God has pulled me through, always knowing what is best for me. I love my husband and know that Goad still has more of him in store for us.
Take care and thank God for putting you in our lives, your wisdom leads us down paths of righteousness for his name sake.