“May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.” Proverbs 5:18
On Wednesday, Katie and I were standing on the corner of US 41 and Laurel Rd. She walked up to me and said, “look around…could you even imagine?” After thinking a little while, I had to ask, “what do you mean?” It hadn’t even entered my head that that precise location would impact my life as greatly as it did…DECADES ago!
Yesterday was Thursday. But it was also June 17, 2021. Which means it was our 44th wedding anniversary! On Wednesday, we had stood in front of a Verizon cell phone store which USED to be a 7-11. The same 7-11 where we bought gas and got a tank of water…44 years ago! Across the street is the Publix shopping center…which 44 years ago USED to be a Drive-in movie theater. The SAME Drive-in movie theater where I had proposed to Katie 44 years ago…after knowing her for only 2.5 days!
44 years is a long time AND a rather strange number! It certainly would not be a highlighted anniversary number for much of anything…like 10, 25, 50 or 100! But it is what it is. Due to several factors in our lives, one being that we are awaiting our 11th grandchild any day now, we couldn’t really be as instantaneous and carefree as with our wedding proposal, and go out of town on a trip. So we stayed home and cleaned the garage!
Our 44th year was not really outstanding weather wise either. It was dark, gloomy and spit rain, on and off, all day long. Days like that just kind of put one in a funk, as we lay around and TRIED to come up with spectacular plans to ice the cake of anniversary bliss. Every suggestion met with…’Eh!’ Nothing seemed to jump out with excitement. Until I brought up the REASON I hadn’t purchased her ANYTHING!
If you look up wedding anniversary gifts according to year, which I had done, the FIRST thing I noticed would be that MOST lists are generated by JEWELRY companies. Katie has so much jewelry it takes 2+ full sized floor cases for the stuff! LITTLE of it is valuable since, THAT stuff she wears! So buying her another piece just didn’t excite me. When I looked at a list to find the ‘gift for this year,’ All I could do was laugh! It said ‘GROCERIES!’
I shared that bit of info with my bride as we drove to a restaurant to eat. Something fancy just didn’t FEEL exciting. When we were done, we stopped in a craft shop (her request) and I couldn’t believe my eyes! When I pointed it out, she grabbed it and said the SAME thing she said after seeing ME sitting behind a drum set 44 years ago! “I want it!”
Now granted…this MAY not seem like a great Biblically based devotion to others. But to me, it fits PERFECTLY with the number 44! Nothing fancy. Nothing really memorable. No gifts, cards or destinations. Just 44 years of spending a WHOLE day, and lifetime, together. Living, loving, working and sharing the sunshine and the rain and the labors of life. So to my wife, thank you for making it possible to actually LIVE this Bible Verse. NEXT year is SAPPHIRE!
