Sunday, July 6, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Anniversaries
Thus says the LORD:
 Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her,
 all you who love her;
I will spread prosperity over Jerusalem like a river,
 and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent.
 In Jerusalem you shall find your comfort.
 When you see this, your heart shall rejoice
 and your bodies flourish like the grass.
Happiness stays corked up in the bottle until the anniversaries, and then it pours on out. Two years ago on July 3, Marc asked first Evie for her phone number. He swooned then, and she swoons now, their eyes full of love and affection, made stronger in patience. Eight days before her birthday, life felt transformed then for both of them. And still does.
They’ll be camping four days at Turkey Run beside Sugar Creek this week – hiking, tubing, canoeing, cooking on a Coleman stove, sleeping in a tent covered by a rainfly they hope they won’t need, and sitting beside the fire with Bear under a starry sky. Bear loves to romp in the water, hour after hour until he’s exhausted. Such good times.
We remember a variety of firsts in 1979. In January we spent New Year’s Eve with friends, and I rubbed Margaret’s feet. A week later we saw the movie Superman. On Valentine’s Day I surprised her by cleaning her living room and spreading rose petals on the floor. In March we helped our friends Dave and Ginny move from Lincoln to Joplin, Missouri, and on the way back I dropped down on my knees and proposed marriage to Margaret. A few days later, she said YES.
These are all anniversaries before the one we have a date for, August 19, when we dressed up for church and stood up during the invitation and asked to be married. Our preacher Al Morehead was prepared, and his smile was as wide as a tree spreading its branches in welcome.
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
Then through the river they passed on foot;
Therefore let us rejoice in him.
These miracles of relationship stick through trouble and sorrow because they are commitments that we keep. Anniversaries of tragedy also last – kids lost to a sudden flood in Texas on July 4, an unexpected heart valve replacement, and so many others. Those matter too, because they also are shared. I stare out my office window to the west, watching a storm gradually gain strength. Day and night cars pass by on Lincoln Avenue, headed somewhere that matters to the passengers. A maple tree that’s been here for sixty years stands up strong, and a new elm rests protected under it. Is this grief I feel, or joy? How much difference is there, really?
The trees and traffic mark everyday moments for me as my heart beats and lungs take in oxygen, thousands of times a day mostly unnoticed. And then … an anniversary, and even the traffic seizes my attention. Maple and elm leaves blowing in the sun are so beautiful I can barely breathe. I notice my chest moving up and down, and each breath feels precious. Wait for it, wait for it, breathe in and breathe out, and I remember and look forward to our very special days of life and love and relationship, made one flesh for life.
And then there’s the rest of it … the never-ending rest.
Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you,
but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.
(Isaiah 66, Psalm 66, Galatians 6, Colossians 3, Luke 10)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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