by Rev Douglas Brauner

It’s all about grace.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20b New Living Translation

Forty years ago today, on a hot Sunday afternoon at Trinity Lutheran Church in Mt. Angel, Oregon, my wife Janice and I spoke our vows to each other and became husband and wife. It felt like the first Shrek movie at the time, but it turned out to be more like Shrek two…and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Life after we said, “I do,” was better than riding off into the sunset to live happily ever after.

One of the first blogs that I wrote, for the Praying With The Eyes ministry, focused on a picture that hangs above our steps. It’s a picture of our family from a number of years ago. The title of that blog was “A Place of Grace.” That is what my relationship with Janice has been about. It is a relationship of grace.

If people were to ask me what the secret is to making it for forty years, there is only one answer that I can give. What has made our relationship last is God’s grace. His grace has sometimes worked through us, and sometimes worked through others who have helped us along the way. In fact, if I were to write a book on what makes for a successful marriage, it would be the shortest book ever written. It’s not a five or ten step program. It’s one thing: The mercy of God that has been made evident in our marriage.

What I like about this picture of these two gnomes is that they are so close to kissing, but they aren’t there yet. So also, Janice and I have not arrived. There are changes coming for us in the future as there have been for us in the past. We’re anticipating some of these changes and others we can’t see, yet Jesus promises to be with us “to the end of the age.”

To my beautiful, wonderful, and ever-forgiving wife: Thank you, I love you.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado