Old Hands

This past week I was able to be on a college campus to visit my children and pick up some of their stuff for the summer. It is always fun to be on a college campus in the spring when all the young hearts are in love and newly engaged. It is fun to watch that young love as it starts its journey together.

Recently I have had the opportunity to be in the company of several married couples who have celebrated life together for over 40 years and some well over 50 years. I love to hear their stories about the early years of their marriage. Most of them started out with nothing or close to it and they would not want to change a thing if they had it all to do over again. Some of them remembered their first house being a bedroom, living room, kitchen with the simplified floor plan of using one room for all three needs. That floor plan works great for the couples who like having breakfast in bed and a couch in their bedroom along with a small dinning table. Speaking of the dinning table, one couple often used the space under the table to double as the spare bedroom for overnight guest.

These are great examples of life long love that survives all the struggles of life. This is the kind of love that faces cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, unemployment, special needs, and the rest of life’s ups and downs with loving grace and determination. These are couples with life long love that still enjoys a walk in the park, sharing a piece of pie, a good laugh or a good cry. These are couples that still enjoy the touch of their hands clasped together. These old hands may have wrinkles and age spots, but they know a thing or two about life and love and the meaning of forever.

So for you and I let us look forward to having old hands with our life long mates. Let us have the love and determination to walk hand in hand through both the joys and struggles of life. This does not mean that we won’t have moments of anger and frustration, but it does mean that those moments will not define us or our love for each other. So keep walking, keep living, keep longing for the time you and your spouse can look back and say “we did it!”

One more thing for all the young couples out there, Life and Love are not about moments that take your breath away. Life and Love are about the moments that give you breath and a reason to keep walking hand in hand.

Love God. Go Love Others.