The Perfect Match

Attention: Read all the way to the end.

We have a crazy schedule ahead, so last night, Joe and I celebrated an early Valentine’s Day. My husband suprised me with a beautiful bouquet of pink roses, chocolates, some of my favorite desserts, a beautiful Betsy Johnson necklace, and this adorable Valentine’s plush Minnie. I felt so loved, not because of the amount of gifts, but because he chose them all through what he has learned about me over our years together.

My husband listens to me; because, he cares about what I think and how I feel. He notices when I get bright-eyed like a child when I see something I like–much like a kid in a candy store; because, he wants to know what makes me giddy and excited. He pays attention when something upsets me; because, he wants to be the man in my life that defends me and makes me proud to have him hold my hand. He wants to know me; because he loves me, so he spends time with me and takes the time to learn who I am, in an ever evolving role, from his perspective: a pretty woman on the Bible college campus to wife, from wife mom of one, from mom of one to mom of three, from mom of toddlers to mom of teens and adults, from pastor’s wife to ministry partner on foreign soil, from “ministry partner” to the woman who gets down in the dirt with our village kids because she loves them and wants them to find hope in Jesus.

Yep, through it all, my sweet husband has walked with me through every season, the mountaintops and dancing with joy to losing everything and being absolutely broken. He has been faithful to me through it all–the good, sunny, beautiful parts and the bad and grotesquely ugly parts; I have done the same with him, and the more I study him, the more I spend time with him and listen to him, the more I learn about him and the more in love I become with him. He is my perfect match.

Here is the weird part–Joe and I got together through the most unusual situation. We were hard-heads, having our own ideas of what a spouse should look like and be like, and we could have missed each other and married others, but when we both submitted our plans to God, even though we were older, God still faithfully led us to each other–even being continents apart at the time. (You can read more details about this in my blog entitled “Mr. Brown Eyes”)

This is how God is in our lives! We have our own plans and ideas of what our lives should be like, what we want to accomplish, and what we want to be, but God has such greater plans for us. His Word says “exceedingly and abundantly above all we ask or think.” He cares about what we struggle with and what brings us joy, and He cares about how we feel, this is one of the reasons Jesus lived a human life, going through what we go through, so he could “empathize with our weaknesses.” Best of all, he is unbelievably patient with us.

We will find no one who loves us like Him, and it’s only when we turn to Him that we can even begin “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…” (Ephesians 3:19) When we start to study him, spend time with him, listen to him, learn about him, the more in love we become with him, and if we choose him, he will walk with us through every season–the good, sunny, beautiful parts and the bad and grotesquely ugly parts. He will be faithful through it all if we choose him above all else.

The really cool part is that He gave us the most precious and priceless gift, our freedom through His death on the cross. The Bible says: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) However, if you don’t understand how lost we are without him, then you may not understand the magnitude of this gift.

Allow me one moment to break this down: If you have ever sinned: lied–even a little white lie, taken something not your own, looked in lust at someone else, cheated someone or on something, put yourself before others in selfishness or greed, desired something that belonged to someone else…this stuff goes deep into what is inside of our hearts and motives, and if we are found guilty of this, then we will spend eternity with one who fed us these ideas. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, we have adopted these thoughts and motives from the enemy of God, and if we are not made new and freed from them, we will spend eternity with the enemy of God, the enemy of our souls.

However, if we turn from him and choose Jesus, He is waiting for us, and He has already paid the price for us, not because he desires to enslave us, but because he loves us and desires to see us set free from the enslavement of our own sins in which we have unmindfully been. Actually, we will not only receive freedom here on earth, but he is preparing a place of freedom for us to be together forever. His Word says that he is coming back for us, and when he does, he will rapture us away to be with him, and won’t it be incredible to spend eternity with the one who knew and loved us before the foundations of the earth were laid.

Now, it’s our choice. Do we choose our own way, our own things, and our own selfish ideas, or do we choose Jesus? Do we choose to study Him and all0w ourselves to truly fall in love with Him. I promise you, the hard-headed road may look happy at times when we watch ourselves accomplish our goals and dreams, but it’s not until we attain many of these things that we even begin to realize our chains. We can choose that path because Jesus loves us so much that he will allow us to have what we truly want, but we, who have turned from that lifestyle, do not regret it.

We, who have chosen to be ride-or-die with Jesus, have experienced the path with Him. Though this path is not always easy, He walks with us every step of the way, and we’ve studied Him enough to know that we are proud to have His arm around us. We love Him and understand He is our Provider, our Defender, our Protector, and our Dream-Giver, and He will forever be our perfect match.