Devotion

          This week is our wedding anniversary. Forty-seven years ago, we made promises to each other—to love, cherish and more. The preacher who married us included that we pledge our abiding devotion.

          And we did.

          I’ve thought a lot about that part of our commitment—the abiding devotion part, and I’m brought back to the times in our marriage that were good but also the struggles. Marriage—the good, solid kind—is hard work, and that’s where abiding devotion comes into play. That commitment to be one before God no matter what happens.

          No. Matter. What.

          So, because my husband was committed to me and I to him, we weathered storms and came out the other side still thanking God for bringing us together. Why? Because I can’t imagine having done these forty-seven years alone. Not without Brian and certainly not without the Lord.

          Some of our anniversaries have found us in strange places. One even separated us by several countries’ borders. And this year, after an over-flowing year of medical challenges, we’ll “celebrate” in a surgeon’s office far from home.

          Because we’ve had some “very interesting” anniversaries, this one didn’t seem particularly odd. We’ve always managed to plan a dinner out or have a special dessert at another time. I guess we could have thought, Why don’t we get a break? We could have thought that. We might have.

          Then this happened...

          We received a wedding invitation from a girl we’ve known since she was born and her fiancé who we’ve gotten to know by mail. You see, Naomi and Nick* were engaged several years ago, but…

          …something happened. Prior to their engagement, Nick took a wrong turn and found himself sentenced to a penitentiary. This is where I came into Nick’s story because Naomi shared about him, their being apart, and how hard life was now that he was incarcerated.

          I offered to write to Nick. That’s how we “got acquainted”—through our once-in-a-while exchange of letters. What I learned from Nick’s letters? He was full of information, very smart and interesting, sociable, and so in love with Naomi who wrote to him every day. He also was clinging to the Lord and hanging tight to his faith, despite the opposition behind bars.

          So, when we received Nick and Naomi’s wedding invitation, we rejoiced that the groom was now free and ready to start a new life. But…

          …then I read their invitation aloud to Brian:

“With joy in our hearts, we are excited to announce

our upcoming wedding…It won’t be a typical wedding—

no bouquet toss, no dance floor, no cake. Just heartfelt vows,

faithful commitment, and a lot of love.

Because we can only have four witnesses present,

we’re asking the rest of our family and friends to celebrate with us

in spirit on our wedding day. Pray for us…

After a long engagement, we’re thrilled to be joined in marriage,

even at the prison. Thank you for walking beside us the last seven years.

God’s faithfulness has carried us every step of the way:

through separation, struggle, and the long refining road of grace.

This marriage is a testimony to His mercy, redemption,

and the love that holds all things together.”

“I have found the one whom my soul loves.” Song of Solomon 3:4

…and to say I got through without totally choking and flooding with tears? Impossible. But here’s what struck me, and I shared this with Brian.

          “This is what marriage is all about.”

          I’m not sure our abiding devotion holds a candle to Naomi and Nick’s, even though our marriage went through so much that psychologists would’ve given us a 0% chance of survival.

          Nick and Naomi. Already a long-lived relationship while a bride-to-be sacrificed years of her life for the one she knew was God’s man for her. Waiting. Separated by distance, locks, and prison bars.

          Devotion.

          Then we took our developmentally disabled son for his annual oncology appointment. We sat waiting for some time between two appointments—one for labs and the other to see the doctor. So, we saw people come and go—all of them with their own difficult stories.

          Then this happened…

          A couple stepped out of the elevator, she shuffling and holding onto her husband’s arm. They sat facing us. The wife immediately sprawled across the couch-like seat, laid her head on her husband’s lap, and closed her eyes.

          No doubt which was the patient to be seen that day.

          The husband gently stroked her arm, kissed the palm of his other hand, and placed it on her head for a moment. He looked toward her closed eyes, dosed off, and awoke to make sure his bride was as comfortable as possible—again stroking her arm. Repeatedly. Tenderly.

          Both weary. Both sharing the burden.

          We didn’t wonder if this couple loved one another. Not for a second. What we witnessed?

          Devotion.

          And, again I turned to Brian, eyes filled with tears and voice quivering. “That’s what marriage is all about.”

          He nodded.

          I’ve learned lessons this year. From Nick and Naomi. From a couple whose names we don’t know, and from reflecting back on the day we took our vows and, amongst the other things, pledged…

          Abiding devotion.

          The following hymn—loved by so very many—may sound like a groom writing to his bride, but Rev. Matheson had no bride. He wrote it on the eve of his sister’s marriage—the one who’d helped him through his years of blindness.

          That evening Rev. Matheson fell into deep melancholy. Whether because of losing his sister as a loving aide or thinking back to when he was much younger or both.

          You see, the reverend, who’d struggled with his eyesight all his years, once was engaged to be married. His eyes had worsened to the point he was told he’d become blind. When he shared this news with his intended, she broke their engagement because she was quite sure she couldn’t cope with a blind husband.

          About penning the words to this hymn, Rev. Matheson said, “Something happened to me…which caused me the most severe mental suffering. The hymn was the fruit of that suffering…I had the impression rather of having it dictated to me by some inward voice…this came like a dayspring from on high…”

O Love that Will Not Let Me Go

 

Bill & Gloria Gaither - O Love That Will Not Let Me Go [Live] ft. Gaither Vocal Band

 

O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

 

O Light that follows all my way, I yield my flick’ring torch to thee,

My heart restores its borrowed ray, that in thy sunshine’s blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

 

O Joy that seekest me thru’ pain, I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow thru’ the rain and feel the promise is not vain

That morn shall tearless be.

 

O Cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee;

I lay in dust life’s glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red

Like that shall endless be.

 

(from the original hymn, O Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go, by George Matheson, 1882, public domain)

#devotion #marriage #anniversary #prison #cancer #lifestruggles #commitment #vows

 

*Thank you, Nick & Naomi, for permission to include your love story. You are a blessing!

Helping Soldiers Smile

          When our twin sons were deployed in the war (Afghanistan and Iraq), they wrote letters to us when able. They also wrote to one another when possible, but their “letters” to each other were more—oh, how shall I say it—comics poking fun at one another in their situations.

          Yes, laughs in the toughest of times! Humor, like joy, can be a “good medicine!”

           I know that might sound weird, but—to be honest—those drawings gave the brothers and us smiles. And that crazy art work has been preserved over these years. Keepers!

          Last month I pulled a book off our shelves that reminded me of those cartoons our boys drew, but these were done in a different time and different war. The book had belonged to Dad. I remembered it being loaded with comics, but I’d not read it before.

          What started as a I’ll-read-it-then-likely-pass-it-on moment grew into a I-cannot-help-but-read-this.

          Up Front by Bill Mauldin* (an American editorial cartoonist) shared his war comics featuring generically named Willie and Joe—GI characters he created for Stars and Stripes while imbedded with several units in the European Theater during World War II. Bill wrote the history behind his comics in Up Front. He also shared his observations of war, soldiers, and so much more. Here’s a little of what he had to say about men in combat when they come home:

“…There are millions who have done a great and hard job. But so far there are only a few hundred thousand who have lived through misery, suffering, and death for endless 108-hour weeks and, as I said, they are going to be too tired and sick of it to bother anybody who might be worrying about their becoming problems.

They don’t need pity, because you don’t pity brave men—men who are brave because they fight while they are scared to death. They simply need bosses who will give them a little time to adjust their minds and their hands, and women who are faithful to them, and friends and families who stay by them until they are the same guys who left years ago. No set of laws or Bill of Rights for returning veterans of combat can do that job. Only their own people can do it. So it is very important that these people know and understand combat men.”                     –Bill Mauldin

          That’s only a snippet of Up Front. I failed to mark more parts that touched me deeply, so I’ll want to read it again. There are no chapters—just text running from front to back with corresponding cartoons decorating almost every page. Bill shares things a GI might never speak about himself or the circumstances he endured.

          Willie and Joe? Corny characters really, but they shared a naive mix of winsome and hard truths of war. They also weren’t too shy about poking fun at officers!

          At any rate, those fictitious characters gave our military some smiles. After all, good humor—really well-crafted—is so relatable. The GIs who read those comics “got” the messages they were meant to convey.

          How many of us know Veterans who never speak of the war in which they fought? Who die with long-lived aching or nightmare visions that repeat themselves over and over until he/she is laid to rest?

          And what about the ones who do finally talk? Ones now old and so wrinkled who can no longer hold back tears when asked, “Grandpa, what was it like?”

          Anything I could write about Veterans will not suffice. All the thanks I can give will never be enough. And all I’ve gone through in life falls in a small heap at the feet of the ones who made such tremendous sacrifices for me.

          And for you.

          As for the copy of Up Front I now own, I wonder what those comics meant to Dad. After all, he kept his copy of this very different book throughout his life.

          Ironically, while writing this blog post, I discovered We’ll Meet Again, written during World War II—a coming-home song.

We’ll Meet Again (by Ross Parker & Hughie Charles)

Sydnie Christmas - We'll Meet Again (Official Video) - YouTube

 

          Many of us, like Sydnie Christmas, have grandparents/great-grandparents who fought in World War II. My own dad had a stop-over in England (Sydnie’s homeland) before he was shipped to Europe with his unit of combat engineers from Fort Bragg.

           When we were growing up, we knew our dad served in the Army. In fact, he and Mom chose Dad’s dear, Army buddy and his wife to care for us girls if something happened to our parents before we were grown. And other Army buddies remained in our lives until God called Dad Home.

          I didn’t realize then what our dad sacrificed for us—how much all Veterans did. Yes, we always went to the cemetery on Decoration Day where we placed flowers on graves, joined in military remembrances, honored all branches in church, and took part in Veteran’s Day parades.

          But I don’t think it ever truly registered then what all our soldiers went through. In my young mind, they went to war, came home, got jobs, and raised families.

          My favorite Veteran now lives in Heaven. Unlike the song posted above, I do know where we will meet again! But I don’t know the when. How thankful I am to God for His Son’s sacrifice through which Dad could gain eternal life in Heaven.

          For Dad not only served in the US Army but was a soldier of the Cross too!

 

#Veteran #WorldWarII #comics #humor #laughtergoodmedicine #BillMauldin

#UpFront #Willie&Joe #soldiersreturn #sacrifice

 *Cartoons copyrighted 1944. Text in book copyrighted 1945. 1st 3 printings sold before the 4th came out in May of 1945. 

Photo credits: image 1 & 2—pinterest, image 3—pinterest.com.au