As of today, I’ve now been married to Elsje for 14 years. Jacob was obliged to labor for 14 years in order to wed his beloved Rachel. The Scriptures tell us that “they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.” I feel much the same way. These days together with Elsje have been, as it were, all too few. It seems like it’s been just a brief daydream. Time with her is never enough. When we’re apart, I am cut in half. These days we’ve had together have been altogether delightful, yet altogether too few.
Marriage really is a sweet wine of refreshment in this world of hardship. While life brings with it all sorts of demands and duties that draw a couple necessarily in different directions, I have found that nothing upon this earth is quite so good as being drawn together once more with Elsje. The love which binds a husband and wife together has an extraordinary timelessness to it. This is because love, true love, is an attribute of the Triune God. In loving one another we taste, in part, the great love which flows from God Himself. No wonder this love feels like the blink of an eye, and yet, it abideth forever chief along with its companions of faith and hope.
I have been blessed to be united in marital love with Elsje for 14 years now. It really has been a blissful adventure. It really has flown by all too fast. But there is a great thrill to be found in dancing this fleeting earthly dance together, as it will one day, by the mercy of Christ, whisk us into our heavenly home of God’s great love.
We’ve reached our Jacobite milestone. Elsje has crowned my life and home and ministry with dignity, virtue, and grace. She has poured herself into our children and is shaping them wonderfully. She is a steadfast friend, an insightful conversation partner, a glory to behold, and a gracious joy given to me by our Heavenly Father. I write all this make one thing clear. I have found a good thing in Elsje, and I feel like I’ve only had a fleeting moment with her.
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