1 Corinthians 13

Looking into his eyes in the dim light this eve

Knowing how he carried me through the hour gone before,

I had to wince in disbelief then fall more deeply into the blue

He demonstrated his heart once again with eyes that shone on me once more.

How did I ever earn the affections of a heart so pure?

I wondered then left him sleeping, hoping to wind out what was left

As my evening had more hours to go, my To Do list already trashed

No matter the weakness of my days to discover that this part of living is best.

My love understands what it really means to care

When to be strong, to lie within reach, to call just to say, “hi;”

He slays the dragons out there by land and by sea

Then rescues this damsel as needed (no matter how many times)!

To say that I am grateful

Would be too tiny when I am humbled more than that:

A real man has chosen to love me forever

May the Lord bless us both for the journey: true love magnificat. JJ

Many Christian weddings call upon the Apostle Paul’s marvelous description of love to help us know what love really looks like. Sound familiar?

1 Corinthians 13

New International Version (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹²For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

When you see love in action, you know that it truly exists. While love is the hallmark of God’s gift of marriage, we know that it exists in many other relationships too. I must write that I have seen it again today like so many days these past five years. To see love as created by God himself, is to fully be alive. To feel loved by another, is to know that God exists. To love in return, is what I can do to say thank you. To love before I see it, before I feel it, before I can give it, is to become an instrument of the Lord. All are humbling and wonderful.

Today was a particularly difficult day. More noxious symptoms occurred than usual and many continue at this moment. And yet I feel no less loved than any other day from my beloved husband, Steve Horney. He is my Jesus with skin on today and for that I am more than grateful. I . . . I . . . I . . . All I can say is thank you and I love you too!

If you were not in my life, my dear Stevers, I would have my Heavenly Husband to help me through this day. He knows what days this has been true in my past and what days He will be my Rock in the future. Wow. Today I have both. God is good. All the time. God is good.