I watch you nod off on the couch this evening, gray head drooping and reading glasses sliding down your nose and I realize we’ve done it. We have succeeded in growing older together. 

I don’t know what I thought it would be like when we spoke our vows 37 years ago, but it wasn’t this. Aging was something I simply couldn’t imagine back in 1983. 

We have experienced a lot of surprises in those 37 years. I wasn’t expecting the heartache and loss on this journey together, but I wasn’t expecting the adventures either. All of the directions I thought our lives would go…didn’t. But each of those detours led us to something better by far. Some things I did expect, though, that have proven true.

I expected you to remain faithful to Jesus.

I expected you to remain faithful to me.

I expected that we would always serve Jesus together.

These things have remained true, and they are the ones that matter.

I have a hard time remembering life before you. Ours was a whirlwind romance and I didn’t know a lot about life at 21, but I knew a good man when I met him.

And you are still good. I’ve counted on that goodness every day of the last 37 years.

You are good and you’ve done good and because of that we’ve been able to build a legacy of faith for our children in this broken world and also shared light with others in their own darkness.

Today I listened to your excitement about the Bible study you’re leading, and I shared with you a treasure I found in my morning Bible reading. I’m hard pressed to think of a time when we haven’t been involved in ministry together. I realize what a privilege this is, and I am grateful.

It is human nature to want what we don’t have. One secret of marriage is learning to want what we do have. I have you, and I am glad.

If I could have seen the future as you took my hand there at the altar, I would have still chosen you and I would have still chosen this life with you, even knowing the dark and painful parts. I would still say “yes” to any future, as long as it was lived with you, because you are a good man.

A good man, they say, is hard to find. But I found you, and here we are, you with your silver hair and me with my crow’s feet, wondering where the years went.

We’ve done it, you and I – we’ve grown old together (although I love to remind you that you are farther down that road than I am!). We’ve a lot of living yet before us, God willing, but here today I want to say I’m grateful. Grateful for a good man.