Age is Relative & Love is Ageless

It has been said that, 'Age is relative.' It has also been said that, 'If you are talking to a relative, never mention age.'

Personally, I prefer the old adage, 'Growing old is inevitable, but growing up is optional,' for that is truly how I see myself: Slowly growing up, even though I am quickly growing old. The good husband that I am, I will not presume to speak for my lovely wife, whose birthday is today. She has become my age and, together, we are a century old, but I would never, ever tell her age. What sane man would?

Yet, in my eyes, her age is relative, for our love for each other is ageless. When I look at Nancy, I still see her standing shyly in the upper hallway of the New Addition of the Grade School waiting, while a mutual friend came up to me and asked, "That girl over there really likes you. Do you like her?" I looked at her, standing there in her ankle length blue coat (it was Winter of 1970), and told our friend, "Oh, yeah." And the rest is history. She was in 7th Grade and I was in 8th. Little did we know . . . .

Some might say, 'If we knew then, what we know now, things might have been different,' but I don't think so. We don't always see eye-to-eye, but we always have an eye for each other. We may not agree on every issue, but we always agree on the issue of each other. We struggle sometimes with the direction God is calling us to go, but we never struggle with the notion that God has called us to each other and, with each other, we will go wherever we are called.

Our diverse and self-indulgent American culture sends out a myriad of mixed signals about how men and women are to relate to each other - and what they can expect from each other. God's culture comes to us through Christ and is a singular message to both women and men, a message of mutual respect, care, and compassion for the other. True love in relationship is a gift above all gifts, for in the heart of love, in the unselfishness of complete sharing, in the uninhibited winding of all that two might share in becoming one, there is the presence of God. Such gifts do not age, at least as we think of age. They mature, get better, more flavorful, more delectable.

That does not mean there won't be bumps in the road, but life is a choice: You can choose either to go through the potholes of life with someone who will accuse you of aiming for them just to make your life difficult or you choose to go through the potholes of life with someone who will laugh with you as you are jumbled around in the car. Your choice.

I choose God's gift in my life, that ageless, loving woman who can laugh with me and makes me laugh through the ride of our lives in this world. Nancy, may your every birthday be happy, may your every happiness be strengthened in faith, and may your faith always be full in the One from whom all blessings flow. In love, let's grow up slowly together, shall we?

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don