Sunday Meditation 11

What’s Love Got To Do With It? Everything …

Today is Valentine’s Day. Tomorrow is my anniversary. If my math is correct, my wife and I will have been married 41 years.

Yay us!

It hasn’t been easy. Marriage never is. Living with someone that long, you get to see the good, the bad and the ugly — with fair shares of each.

I’d rate our marriage a success: Three great kids. Even greater grandkids. No car payment for the first time in a long time. I’m retired, but I’ve a nice little free-lance business that pays for things like oil changes, lawn care, dinner out once in a while. My wife works, but hopes to retire in a few years.

How do we survive? Ecclesiastes 4:9–12. Here it is in the King James:

“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

I like how the Living Bible paraphrases verse 12:

“A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

The idea of a triple-braided cord is most vivid: Jesus, Jo-Lynn and me. There have been times in 40-plus years that only one of those strands held our marriage cord together. (You can guess which one.)

I asked my wife to marry me for many reasons. Here are a few: She’s cute; I’m not. She’s got a stable personality; I’m all over the place. Her ears are teeny-tiny; mine are big. (How big? My Uncle George used to call me “Dumbo!”) Her teeth are beautiful; mine belong in a Monty-Python skit. She’s nurturing; I’m a nag.

And so on …

You may be asking yourself, “Why did she marry such a loser in the first place.” I ask myself that all the time. I’ve asked her, too. Her answer: “Because I love you.”

Ah, love. It covers a multitude of imperfections.

Nowadays love is out of fashion. Instead of falling in love, people jump into bed. Too bad. Reminds of the last line in that Tina Tuner tune:

“What’s love got to do, got to do with it? What’s love but a sweet, old-fashioned notion. What’s love got to do, got to do with it? Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?”

Yup. An old-fashioned notion. Real old. Here’s what Paul said about it. (Paul the Apostle, not Paul McCartney.)

“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.”

If you haven’t found love like that, I hope you do. It’s nothing like Hollywood love. Or TV sit-com love. Or mushy-gushy, slurpy-wurpy, sappy-wappy saccharin love. Not at all. Authentic Love conquers all; it never fails.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Jim Lamb is a retired journalist and author of “Orange Socks & Other Colorful Tales,” the story of how he survived Vietnam and kept his sense of humor. He thanks God for his lovely wife and kids. For more about Jim and his writing, visit www.jslstories.com.

ARCHIVE: Blasts From the Past

Sunday Meditation 1: The Prodigal Son

Sunday Meditation 2: Ode to Jim Elliot

Sunday Meditation 3: House of Bread

Sunday Meditation 4: Run, Baby, Run

Sunday Meditation 5: When Jesus Prayed

Sunday Meditation 6: The Hebrew Alphabet

Sunday Meditation 7: Lost my Friends

Sunday Meditation 8: Jesus Saves & So Do Lifeguards

Sunday Meditation 9: Tim Tebow’s Dad & Me

Sunday Meditation 10: Coffee & Sweet Rolls

My Testimony: Stealing Psalm 40