2024 Thursday — The Dress

Our 59th year of marriage and the anniversary celebration are now history.

A little explanation about wedding dresses: My mom was so hurt, so ashamed, so mad back in springtime of 1965 when I was 15 and I "had" to get married; so she didn't allow me to wear white. That fact is funny now; it wasn't then. I missed all the fun stuff about being a bride. I've always called my feelings about this a "wedding deficit." I really like weddings. I've been a bride at least 5 times (always to the same man, thankfully).

So Mr. Fun doesn't have to ask me twice to wear my wedding dress. This wedding dress I wore 19 years ago on our 40th anniversary celebration vow renewal was purchased way back then on eBay for $50 from a couple in the UK.

So for our May 29th anniversary this year, I donned the dress and walked amongst Mr. Fun's backyard flowers (he took photos) and then we enjoyed a celebration meal of delicious seafood at our favorite Italian restaurant. Our day was mostly filled with conversation and food; we talked all day (talked and talked and talked), we reminisced about the past and speculated about the future.

Our anniversary conversation always includes thoughts about our 10th anniversary in 1975 when Jesus came to our party -- our "water to wine" moment. He told us then everything we had ever done. We were guilty and we did not deny it.

In 1975 Jesus wrapped His arms around us, held us close, and asked if we wanted to exchange our old lives; He asked if we wanted to be born again; did we want to be forgiven, we both said "yes" and our sin was forgiven. His hug was the best we've ever had. We both were baptized; it was a symbol of our sin being washed away, of our old lives dying and new lives beginning. We didn't look any different, that did not matter. We were two brand new people.

Then Jesus said, "Watch this." And He started writing our story; a new page every day. A unique story that neither one of us could have ever written. We were already parents; then He added the calling of Pastor and Professor to our lives.

Miracle after miracle God has done in our lives. He's given us friends that we would have never known; people that we will know for eternity (that's Forever, by the way). He's taken us to Russia and to South Korea to tell others about Him. He told us not to make Him a secret.

He told us to read His Story, which is a wonderful instruction manual, and to follow Him. He taught us to recognize sin and told us to call "sin" sin, to hate sin, and to stay far from it and to love the sinner (that’s what we were). He told us He would give us the things we need - love, peace, self-control, patience, joy, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness -- by taking us through the experiences that would produce them. Sometimes we've had to learn over and over and we still are learning. He told us not to worry and He's given us things that could cause worry so we'd learn to trust Him.

We have 49 years of evidence that He can be trusted with our lives AND we are still learning not to worry. God has given us many enjoyable possessions, but most of all our treasures are in our family members . . . our parents came to know Jesus before they exited earth and are ALL now in Heaven. Our two adult children, Shawn and Deidre (Dede), both love Jesus and they each send us Bible verses every day. They are neither one doctors or lawyers or Indian chiefs, but they are Christ-followers and we will enjoy eternity with them. They bring us joy. We have three adult grandchildren and four great-grandchildren and we ask God daily to give each of them a "Damascus Road experience" (go ahead, look that up).

We want our friends to know Jesus. Our newest neighbor drove by us on our street yesterday and said, "Hey, if you two believe in prayer, please pray for the construction on my house to get done." We talked for a few moments and then Mr. Fun put his hand on her shoulder and prayed out loud for her and for the construction. She knows about Jesus, but she does not know Him as her Lord and her Savior. How about you? Have you asked Jesus to be part of your life? We hope you have.

Now we are going to live the days of Year 60; if we make it another 12 months we'll thank God and celebrate again.

Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol
and Chloe & Mitzi too!