Bible Center Church

In Junior High School we fell in love. Just two kids, who a few years later plunged starry-eyed into marriage. (As of the third of March, fifty-five years have come and gone.) Hand-in-hand with our Lord, we stepped confidently into the future unaware of what it would bring. Each wedding anniversary has drawn our attention to the path the Lord asked us to travel with Him. It has been a good trip.

During our 55 years together, we’ve pitched our tent in 44 states. We’ve watched the golden sun rise over a sparkling Galveston Beach, and one Christmas we camped in a volcanic crater in Big Bend National Park. Quietly we watched whooping cranes as they wintered in Aransas, TX. We cautiously shared a path in the Smokies with a black bear, climbed Mt. Washington and dangled our feet over the rim of the Grand Canyon. On a warm sunny day off Cape Cod, “Salt,” a humpback whale, tossed ocean spray our way as she frolicked with her calf, “Briney.”

Standing on the Acropolis, we watched the sun set, reminding us that all great nations come to naught when they forget the one true God. On a trip to Israel, we knelt and touched the ground where our Lord and Savior walked. On Tobago, we shared dinner with a little bird who flew through the window of the restaurant to fill its beak with sugar from the bowl on our table, again and again.

Those were the good times.

There were sad times as well. We’ve wept as we’ve said goodbye to friends and loved ones, too many times. Both of us have faced our own mortality as we experienced life-threatening illnesses. We know that some day one of us must say goodbye to the other, and we dread that day.

But through it all, we’ve made an attempt, as King David recorded in Psalm 16, “to set the Lord always before us. . . .” There have been deep dark pits of despair from time to time, but we were never in despair alone. During the times we’ve met the enemy on a battlefield, prayer has been our mainstay. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “in the midst of suffering, terror, bereavement or physical pain, if we appeal to ‘Headquarters,’ our post is always defended.” We’ve found that to be true.

Many whom we’ve met on our matrimonial journey have shared our joys and heartaches. Christian parents and relatives, our friends and neighbors, pastors, Sunday School teachers; each in his/her own way, has lighted a candle for us in the darkness, enabling us to “finish the course.”

It has been more than 30 years since we joined the Bible Center Church. Friends at this church have counseled, nurtured and loved us faithfully; what a blessing these folk have been! To grow in the Word of God together with our fellow members has been our greatest privilege.

We don’t know how many more anniversaries our Lord has planned for us. But, we do know that by asking the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Head of our home from the very beginning, we have reached this milestone still committed, still in love, and still serving the Lord who saved us and gave His life for us.

Hebrews 10:23-25, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together . . . but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”