70 Years of Small Moments

They walked slowly back to the car. He had a bit of a limp, one hand holding a cane and one hand holding hers.

I watched as he lifted her wrinkled hand to his lips and she smiled in his direction.

I held back tears of gratitude as I witnessed the tender moment.

They've been holding hands for seventy years now.

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.  

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy. - Ephesians 5:22-23

It isn't many people, anymore, who can say that they have a living example of godly marriage in their midst. Last weekend, I had the privilege of celebrating seventy years of one such relationship.

Seventy years represents a lot of big moments- the births of seven children and eighteen grandchildren (and twenty-some great-grandchildren), moves and new homes, anniversaries, parties, reunions.

But even more importantly, those years were filled with millions of small moments, too.

Countless loads of laundry hung out to dry. Hundreds of hours of road trips to visit family (with grandma giving grandpa grapes as he drove). Beach days and spaghetti dinners and nights out. Hundreds of baseball games (go Cubs!). Days on the lawn mower. Cards sent for birthdays. Millions of forks washed. Thousands of prayers said.

A great marriage isn't built on just the big moments. The small moments of ordinary, daily faithfulness make up the majority of those seventy years.  They trusted God in the little moments. They were faithful in the small things. They showed love and gave grace and submitted to the Father on the important days, as well as on the ordinary days.



Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for your example of true love built on faith in God, faithfulness in the small things, and for the honor of seeing your renew your 70-year-old vows to one another! You are a blessing to us all.

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