Faith Through the Journey

How many weddings have you attended and heard the bride and groom repeat those vows? Do they really have any idea what that means? The ignorance of youth can be bliss, and I’m sure that if every couple could see into the future and see how that vow would be tested, they might turn around and run away from the altar. When Jesus told us to live one day at a time, He knew we couldn’t handle the whole picture at once! When my husband and I spoke those vows, Crohn’s disease was something that might flare up now and then, but nothing we couldn’t handle. We were blessed with 6 very quiet years, during which we had 3 long distance moves and had 2 of our 3 children. When the Crohn’s recurred in 1987, it began a continual pattern of uncertainty that we continue to live with even now.

Through all of these roller coaster years, my husband has been my rock. He has lived out “in sickness and in health” to an extent I know he never thought possible. After so many years of having to pick up the slack at home when I’ve been hospitalized or out of commission, he has never complained or been resentful of the fact that I can’t do what I usually do. He has made middle of the night runs to the hospital and then figured out what to do with 3 small children while he still needed to do his job. He has been my chief advocate with medical personnel who didn’t want to hear anything about my medical history, carried me when I couldn’t walk on my own and made sure I had the very best medical care available. With every anniversary we’ve celebrated our vows have meant more than they did the day we first spoke them (my husband says he doesn’t need to renew his vows because his original ones haven’t expired!). As we’ve watched two of our children take those same vows, I hope that what they’ve seen in us will encourage them to keep those promises when the going may get tough. We know that our faith in Christ has been the sustaining factor through this and all the other highs and lows of our lives, and we are eternally grateful to Him.