I Still Do

Today I will perform a wedding ceremony for a great couple--Eric Robson and Sara Burkhead. Sara came into our church family not long after I became the pastor, and she's become a friend to my family. In fact, I've threatened to break both of Eric's legs if he doesn't treat Sara right. I'm just kidding...sort of. Seriously, I think Sara's found a great guy...and I know Eric's getting a great girl. If he ever forgets that, though...legs, kneecaps, walking, rehabilitative therapy. ;-)

I don't perform a wedding ceremony that I don't think of my own marriage. That's a good practice, by the way...reevaluating your own marriage everytime you watch another couple say, "I do." You know, couples spend so much time, energy, and money on the wedding ceremony that sometimes they don't think nearly enough about the marraige. The ceremony lasts but a few minutes...the marriage is to last a lifetime.

Beth and I stood on the platform of Calvary Baptist Church in West Memphis, Arkansas, almost 20 years ago and said, "I do." I meant those words with all my heart...but you want to know what my wife wants to know now...19 1/2 years later? She wants to know that "I still do." She's never asked me to say those words, I want you to understand. But I tell her from time to time (not nearly enough, though), "I still do."

What does that mean? It means that all the promises and commitments I made to her on our wedding day are just as significant...just as real now as they were then. As a pastor I often hear couples say, "We just don't love each other like we did in the beginning." I want to say to them (and sometimes do), "I don't love my wife the same as I did in the beginning. I love her MORE!"

I love to say that there's nothing more beautiful in this life than old love. By that I mean older folk showing their affection for one another. I see it when they hold hands as they walk through the mall. I see it when a husband opens the door for his wife. I see it when a wife shows up everyday at the nursing home to care for her husband with Alzheimer’s. He doesn't know who she is...but she knows who he is...and she remembers the vows she made to him on her wedding day. That's old love, and it's beautiful.

But I assure you, old love doesn't just sprout out of nowhere; it's homegrown. Old love has to begin somewhere, such as with young love. I do long for heaven because God has placed eternity in my heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). But I also want to grow old with my wife. In some ways I feel like we've been together our whole lives...I barely remember life without her. In other ways, I feel like our relationship is just getting started. I'm still learning her...coming to love her more.

So as I sit here putting the finishing touches on Eric's and Sara's wedding ceremony, I'm also thinking about my wife downstairs. I'm thinking about how "I still do." I think I'll go tell her...