As I begin this blog, I do so with a bit of sadness because I have come to the end of the “Love is” series, which has been therapeutic. If you are interested in reading some of the blogs I wrote during my wife’s seven-month long battle for survival you can go to the Elder Source Blog page.
A week ago I happened to mention to someone that I have been journaling to my wife and wrote, “Can you see if you can get a weekend pass?” The gentleman scolded me, “Why would you want her to leave Heaven to do that?” I don’t know what he does for a living or if he is even married, but I do know he should not become a grief counselor.
In my journaling the last few days I have been writing about our honeymoon. We were married on June 19, 1982. She died six weeks before our 35th anniversary. Yet, even in recent years, we still acted like newly weds. Our love grew stronger over years because we learned to cultivate it.
When I gave her the engagement ring on Christmas Eve 1981, I had just finished grad school and had very little money or personal possessions, but the ring was absolutely beautiful. I remember saying to her, “This ring has a flaw in the very center. You can’t see it now, but it is there. Just like the ring, I am flawed as well, but I love you and always will!
I wrote in the first blog in this series that love is Patient. In the second blog I wrote that love is Kind. In this, the final blog of the series, I want to leave you with one thought to ponder. LOVE NEVER FAILS! Love takes work, but it will never be a wasted effort. I don’t fully understand the concept that love will never fail, but I will when I get to Heaven.
I also don’t understand what Heaven will be like relationally for Sue and me, and I know we can’t have a weekend pass, but it sure would be nice if we could have a little cottage on the outskirts of Heaven. Our grave marker will include the following, “Together Forever.” God’s love for us never failed, and neither did our love for each other. Perhaps in some way we will be together forever.
Love like there is no tomorrow. Our tomorrows ended 5/6/2017.
Stan Means
Elder Source Senior Ministries
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