My Wife

I’ve known my wife Emily for almost a year now, and been married for about 3 months. It’s crazy. Sometimes it just kind of hits me like, “a girl sleeps in my bed now.” This girl I’ve known for a year is now going to be with me, virtually by my side the whole time, for the rest of my life. It’s hard to believe because it happened so fast, and I’m still getting used to the idea. Our dating relationship, which took place only on the weekends, seemed like one long vacation with timeouts for workweeks. It was hectic with plane rides, luggage, delayed flights, cancelled flights, late Friday nights getting in, early Monday mornings leaving (to the tune of 4:30am), airport food, and lots of emotional hellos and goodbyes. In retrospect, it was easily the best time of my life up to that point, as well as one of the most exhausting. Since then, things have settled down greatly since Fridays are no longer filled with rushing to the airport after work and anxiously waiting for the flight to land in Memphis (or whatever city we happened to be in). It’s also a great time now precisely because there’s no more of that! Ecclesiastes says there is a time for everything:

a time to be born, and a time to die;a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;a time to kill, and a time to heal;a time to break down, and a time to build up;a time to weep, and a time to laugh;a time to mourn, and a time to dance;a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;a time to seek, and a time to lose;a time to keep, and a time to cast away;a time to tear, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;a time to love, and a time to hate;a time for war, and a time for peace. -3:2-8

And even though this verse was ripped off by a hippie band in the 60s, it still rings true. Life changes, a lot of times without your control, but each season has its good things, and each season is inhabited by God’s grace. On a graver and somewhat unrelated note, I’m reminded of the tragedy of Horatio Spafford, in which he lost his 4 daughters in a shipwreck. Despite the horror, he somehow managed to see God’s love and providence in any season of life no matter how horrible, and he penned these paradoxical words: When peace, like a river, attendeth my way/When sorrows like sea billows roll/Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say/It is well, it is well with my soul.

I wish I had that kind of faith.

Anyway, I’m enjoying being married to her. She is a wonderful gift from God and an answer to my prayers. It’s a good season.