Today we are celebrating my wonderful, amazing, thoughful, kind, generous, incredibly sweet (I could go on forever) husband’s 32nd birthday! It is always one of my favorite things about Christmas time. I know that might sound strange. Many people ask Nathan if he feels in any way slighted because his birthday is so close to Christmas. He always says no and often times says “It’s just another day.” I always use birthday wrapping paper…never Christmas…to keep it separate and make his favorite blueberry pie instead of cake. While this time of year is set aside to celebrate the birth of our Savior I am very thankful I can celebrate the birth of my husband at the same time.
There was a time when I wasn’t exactly cherishing my husband the way I had vowed to. I was living addicted to a vicious cocktail of drugs, rigorous exercise and retail therapy almost always thinking about only myself. One evening on a bus coming home from watching a friend’s band play Nathan had fallen asleep next to me and I just couldn’t sleep. I was anxious, restless and unsettled and couldn’t figure out why. Everyone else seemed to fade away and it was as if the voice of God suddenly said to me as I looked over at my husband No one is ever going to love you the way Nathan does….the way I do. It was an epiphany as a rush of memories flooded my mind in a split second from the past 2 years. Memories of my husband never once leaving my side…never once walking away…never once even thinking of doing either no matter how much I didn’t deserve his devotion. Then and there I knew the weight of my actions and that I needed to change not just my actions…but my heart. Only weeks later did we find out we were unexpectedly, miraculously going to be parents and my life would never be the same. God could have let me self destruct…but He graciously didn’t.
The scripture from our wedding was one that many couples choose from 1 Corinthians 13…Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. This is Christ’s love for us…the same type of love God commands husbands to have for their wives. And you know what? This is what my husband daily…since the day we got married…does…not has…does for me. Even though not perfect Nathan embodies Christ’s love so effortlessly. I firmly believe for a hundred reasons that God, as if He shows me daily, created Nathan to be my husband. Sometimes I just don’t understand Why? Why have I been blessed with such a gift? I just don’t deserve him. I never could have possibly imagined a love so amazing…for me?
Imean first God gave His Son for me…then He gave me someone to spend my life with that loves me unconditionally to show me first-hand what it means to love like Jesus. I don’t even know where to begin to thank Nathan for this love he has for me…except to love him back this same way. I don’t even know where to begin to thank God for giving me such a marvelous work created by His hand for me…except to love everyone this way. While Jesus is the best gift God has ever given me…Nathan is most certainly the second which is why celebrating his birthday at Christmas time is one of my favorite things. I love you, Nathan! Happy Birthday, Baby!
Wonders of HIS Love 