31 Years of God's Grace, An open letter to my wife.

Wow! It's so hard to believe we walked out of that little chapel in Orlando 31 years ago. It's much easier to understand when I look in the mirror and see my slowly wrinkling face but it amazes me how you seem to look so much younger with each passing year. All I can attribute this to...is God's grace. We've experienced 31 years of God's wonderful, indescribable, miraculous grace.

That we survived those first few awkward years of trying to define our relationship around the things of this world is a strong testimony of His grace. Even more powerful is the grace He shed upon us when He drew us toward Himself, delivering me from my sin and bringing you, prodigal like, back home meanwhile, building a whole new foundation for our relationship. That would have been enough grace to make each of us thankful for a lifetime.

But He wasn't done...not by a far chance.

By His grace, He gave us two beautiful and healthy children. What a wonderful, loving mother you were and are to them. It's taken me far too long to see His grace in the way you love our children...a beautiful reflection and reminder of how He loves us.

Not ending there, we saw more of His grace in how those children became adults. Yes, He's still working in both their lives, maybe more evident at some times than others. But, by our own testimony of His grace in our lives, we receive some of His promises in the present, like the Ephesians, and some from afar, like the faithful ones in Hebrews.

Maybe the most powerful move of His grace...so far...has been how He placed us in ministry together. What a wonderful, humbling, electrifying move of sheer grace by our sovereign Father in heaven. Having done nothing to earn such an honor and being unable to maintain it on our own, we have no alternative other than to cry out "Thank You, Lord, for Your amazing grace!"

What an incredible journey! What an amazing lesson for us to learn together as we have come to, not just receive each other in spite of our stumbles and flaws, but to love each other more deeply than either of us thought possible. All by His grace, a supernatural, miraculous peek into the throne room of heaven where we will experience the full magnitude of His grace and holiness...together.

I'm proud to call you my wife. It means so much more now than it ever has before. The most amazing thing is this; every time I've thought we have seen the heights of His grace, He blows us away with something even more astounding. I'm so glad we get to share this together. If the future holds no more astounding feats of grace, we have received much more than our share, "..a good measure - pressed down, shaken together and running over."