We love him, because he first loved us.
Tomorrow is my anniversary. Tomorrow I will have been married to the love of my life for 17 years. I never in my imagined that it could get better and better. That feeling that we shared on our wedding day is actually stronger now. I know you're thinking that there is no way you could feel any more emotional than you did on your wedding day, but I honestly do. Let me share something with you and how I feel about this woman named Patti Abney.
We have not always gotten things right. In every marriage there are times where it is difficult to find the right words. It is easiest to hurt who we most love. It is easiest to be most hurt by who we love most. It might be difficult sometimes to say the words, “I am sorry” or “I forgive you”, “I need you” or “I am hurting”. Our marriage has had its share of petals and thorns. But through it all, she loves me and I love her. She makes it easy to love her, because she loves me.
Everyday of our lives we have told one another that we love each other. In the mornings after prayer, at 6:28am when she texts me before I begin my bus route, after my bus route, after every phone call or text, throughout the day and always before we go to sleep. "I love you" is so simple. So simple that sometimes it can seem shallow and not carry the weight that you want it to, just like roses. A rose many times can be commercialized and shallow, but a rose says, "I Love You."
A couple of years back, my wife and I planted a climbing rose at the front walk of our home. It has bloomed every year since. What a beautiful picture, a picture of the life with each other, and that marriage comes with thorns and beauty. It's a reminder of our love for one another. It says there will be days of sunshine and days of clouds, but I am here and I love you. But as I thought on it more and more, it reminds me of the rose of Sharon, Jesus Christ, and what He did for us years ago.
See He was the broken rose, beaten, battered, and crucified. But the greatness of the story is that on the third day He came out of Death and the Tomb. He now blooms in our hearts and lives. Now when I feel as if I failed Him, or as you may feel sometimes that it’s just an ordinary day, I look out our window or doorway and there in fullness is that beautiful rose, a true symbol of Jesus, in full bloom to remind me of His sacrifice and love for me. It simply says, “Steve, I love you”.
