How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. … Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. … Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Ephesians 5
Oh beloved, it is true.
We go through life, in many ways, alone. Oh, it is not that we have no relationships. And, for those of us who have found Him, we realize that we have Him – forever! But still, there is a sense in which an individual is just that.
However, to those of us not given the gift of singleness, we are often given a gift beyond our ability to comprehend. He comes into our lives, and this is wonderful. But then, He introduces an aspect of His very Self to us in person.
G_d, in His lavish lovingkindness, has done this for me. I was already rich with friendship. I was already wealthy beyond measure in Him. But then, He made me one of the wealthiest people ever to have lived.
He gave me a princess to walk alongside me (and one of her names actually means, “royalty”).
She is a:
Friend to guide
Lover to hold
Counselor to consult
Partner in labor
Lady to romance
Woman to Love
Sister to serve
Colleague to laugh with
and a Teammate in our Great Commission.
Can we see it?
Actually, we need to, if we are married. G_d has brought someone in our lives to whom we can give our lives. He is showing us, in flesh, what a truly Loving G_d is like. He is giving us – in flesh and bone – what He has already given us in Blood and Spirit.
This woman is that. She is the best part of my team in this world. I honestly do not know where i would be without her. I am, as Paul speaks about, the weaker brother. I need people around me, who can show me the way when i cannot see – which is more often than i like.
This same woman is currently residing on the other side of the world, some 12,399 KM from my current position in Arizona. We have been called to work in the desert Southwest, and so i have arrived early to try and get some things setup for the arrival of a member of the royal court of heaven.
To say that i miss her would be an understatement. It would fall quite short of the reality.
And, today is her birthday.
So, this entry is in her honor as she enters into a new decade of her walk along the path He has set before her. Would you join me in celebrating her today?!
Oh how i Love thee, my princess and friend!
Give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her that the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever.
~Jonathan Edwards
