My wife, Keri, and I recently had the opportunity to attend a wedding for a young couple we know.  To say the celebration was beautiful was an understatement.

The setting, majestic.  The bride, stunning.  Their vows, handwritten and from the heart.

Hearing the bride and groom read their vows to each other brought a tear to my eye, and warmth to my heart.

I reflected on my vows to Keri 27 years ago today…June 26, 1999.  An eon ago, yet vivid memories remain as though it was yesterday.

We were so young, so in love.  We got married in a traditional church that had a beautiful stained-glass window.  It was so hot that day.  I didn’t care.  I was marrying the woman of my dreams.  I recall standing there, alongside my groomsmen, peering down the aisle, awaiting the door to open revealing my bride.

As the door opened, time stood still.  I gasped.  I smiled.  I teared up.  I saw not only the most beautiful woman in the world, but I saw our future life together.  I saw our family, our path, our future.  I saw myself growing old with her, hand in hand.  As she made her way down the aisle, arm in arm with her father, her smile literally lit up the room.  I was so grateful for the woman God had blessed me with.  I couldn’t wait to marry her, to spend the rest of my life with her.

We chose traditional vows that day.  Mainly because at that time so long ago, it was just the thing to do.  Also, because I wouldn’t have been able to choke out the words that I’d have wanted to say.

Back in the present moment, the young couple finished their vows, placed their rings on one another’s finger, and the pastor declared them husband and wife.  I couldn’t help but think what I would’ve written to my bride 27 years ago, this very day.  Granted, I now have the benefit of 27 years of time together.  Perhaps now they’d be much more rich, more meaningful, more vulnerable, more raw.  Perhaps, they’d go something like this…

I take you, Keri, to be my wife, my best friend.
From this day forward,
I promise to walk with you in faith and in love.

Love is patient, love is kind. 
Though there will be times when I am neither,
I promise to seek the patience and kindness you deserve 
even when life tests us and I fall short. 

I vow to love you as He loves the church,
sacrificially, faithfully, and with the grace
that keeps no records of wrongs. 
I won’t always get it right,
but I will always return to the One who is the source of all love,
asking Him to teach me how to love you better each day. 

I will seek to forgive quickly, as He has forgiven us,
and I will speak truth in love, even when it is hard.
I will rejoice with you in seasons of laughter,
and stand with you in seasons of sorrow.
I will celebrate your victories,
and share the weight of your burdens.

Where you go, I will go,
and where you stay, I will stay.
Together we will serve our God.
I will choose you again every morning,
in joy and in trial, in plenty and in want,
trusting that God who began this good work in us
will be faithful to complete it.

And when our earthly days are done,
and our purposes fulfilled,
I pray we will stand together before our Savior,
having run this race side by side,
having left this world better than we found it,
having loved well, forgiven much,
and glorified Him in our marriage.

May we together hear, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”

This is my vow, my promise, and my joy
for all the days God gives us…

Til death do we part.

This is my solemn vow.

Keri, I love you.  I love this life we’ve built together.  I’ve loved these past 27 years.  I look forward to so many more.

You complete me.

Thank you for being my wife, for walking beside me, for loving me in return, for supporting me through it all.

Our story is still being written.  May it be the most exciting story ever told!

Happy Anniversary!

Love,

Me