Family

This is a copy of a letter I wrote to my parents on their 50th wedding anniversary, which we all just celebrated together in Florida. Thought it would be interesting reading for whomever.
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Dear Mom & Dad,

As clever as man is, we have never been able to surpass God in His creations. Man has created wonderful things, things that have survived for generations, but as followers of Christ we know that eventually, these things will be destroyed. Despite man’s efforts, we have nothing that matches God’s creation except for that which He has given us. No invention, no discovery is outside what God has already ordained and set in motion. One of these evidentiary parts of God that we choose to carry within us is love. A love that is both timeless and measureless as it is subject to choice. That love is discovered through our past experiences, subject to our present choices and lives through us in the paths we choose to take.

Love’s first earthly manifestation was the relationship between Adam and Eve, the relationship between husband and wife. Outside of the love we return to God, this is the most powerful and most telling love that we can choose. Certainly, one would think that the love for a child is more manifest, but who has not fallen in love with a child? To love a child is to love all things peaceful, all things tender, all things worth loving. To love a spouse, is to choose to love when peace is hard to find, when the tenderness might have become hard, when the worthiness is lacking. To prove that love, to experience it, to survive it’s pains, and rejoice in it’s celebrations for fifty years is truly a reflection of a longsuffering and loving God. Ten years, even twenty could be called an achievement, but fifty years is something that tells of God’s handprint on a life, God’s breath, nooma, that which passed by the mountain in the form of a whisper. Mom & Dad, you have received love and reflected love back. You have taken that which can only be of God and you have returned it to your God, your friends, your children. Thank you!

Dad, it is no wonder you have been able to see fifty years of marriage, you are a lover of history and you are now a part of history in it’s most powerful form. How many veterans of combat are there in the world? How many men that have led a family, a marriage through fifty years and beyond? You have taught Jim and me how to love, how to live with a sense of humor, a sense of dedication, a sense of God’s leading. You are a father and a Dad because you are a husband. I know how to love Anne because you know how to love Mom.

Mom, I may look like Dad, but I have much of you within me! My whit, my sense of eloquence, my love for composition, my love for Anne. They say you marry someone like your mother – that may be a curse to some, but it is a blessing to me. Anne shares much in common with you and I see it in her daily interactions with Zachary. You have taught me a love for people, a love for propriety, for excellence in our efforts and for etiquette in our actions. You are my mom because you are my father’s wife. Your sons adore their wives because they adore their mom.

Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your dedication to one another, for all that you have shared and taught us. Congratulations for fifty years, but even more so; well done my good and faithful parents!

With love returned,

David – your son.
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It was a great celebration!