For his wedding gift, I got Caleb a journal. I got the idea from a dear friend of mine. This journal is one of my most treasured possessions, and I can only imagine how much more treasured it will become as the years go by. You see, we began our journal with writing out our vows to one another. And now, each time we would normally go buy a card (for a birthday, Christmas, anniversary, "I am sorry," thank you, etc.) we just write in our journal. That way, we will never throw out our love letters to each other. In fact, we will have a compiled collection of them throughout the years to come! I just love re-reading what he has written to me already. And I can only imagine how much I will appreciate it as we grow old together. I think I will keep re-reading them until I almost have them memorized!
This makes me think of my friend, Roxy. I appreciate the friendship I have with this woman so, so much. I can sit and talk with her for hours on end, always learning and growing and being encouraged. There are very few people who are kindred spirits in life, but she is one of them, only almost twice my age. I love our friendship!
Anyhow, Roxy and her husband Eric have my most favorite love story ever! He had come up from Argentina to Alaska, as a young man, traveling country-to-country doing missionary work. There he met Roxy, who was a teacher at the time. His visit to Alaska was very brief and, if I remember correctly, I don't think they even spent one moment alone together. From Alaska he moved on to Europe. But one day, shortly after they had met, Roxy got a postcard from Eric. She noticed that there was a return address and thought she would respond with a note of her own. This turned into two years of writing love letters back and forth between Europe and Alaska. It was through those letters that they fell in love. And through those letters they decided to get married. I can only imagine how much Roxy would read, and re-read, and read again, the letters she received from her love.
Roxy handmade her wedding dress by herself, before her family sent her off to marry Eric. Since they didn't have to money to go with her, she would go get married without her family present. So, with the dress in her suitcase, they threw rice at her as she got on the plane. What a picture that is! She would then marry Eric, the love of her life, who she fell in love with through "snail mail" letters!
It was about a year ago that I was having one of my cherished phone calls with her and I couldn't stop laughing. They were organizing their house and Eric was in the other room. She was saying how she had been going through the old letters, re-reading them yet again, and how special they were. And in the middle of telling me this, she said she also found some old recordings she had sent him of her singing. But she added that over the years, he seems to listen to them louder because his hearing is going. hahahaha! If you knew this lady, and the spunk in her voice, you would laugh so hard. :)
You know, this has got me asking myself why I don't approach Scripture that way. I mean, if I love God I should be hanging on His every word. Just like a woman in love with a man. I know I am always talking about my husband and things he says and does. I should be even more like this with the Lord! 1 Peter 1:8 says that "though you have not seen Him, you love Him." If this is true in my life, I ought to be approaching Scripture as His love letters to me....reading, re-reading, memorizing His every word.
I hope I am like Roxy when I reach her age. I hope I am so incredibly in love with my husband. And I hope that Caleb and my journal has a collection of love letters that tell a beautiful love story. I will read them, re-read them, and tell them to my children. But even more, I hope that I will pick up my worn out Bible and have read it, re-read it and memorized it, and with each passing page, have a love story to tell of my journey through this life with Jesus.
That would be the love story to live for.......
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