Glennallen, Alaska
Thirty years ago this past Monday, two young and naïve people stood together in front of their pastor and several family members and friends and said vows to each other in a ceremony of holy matrimony. Two young people, with stars in their eyes and dreams of what life held for them in the future. A couple who only knew the very tiny beginnings of what ‘true love’ really is all about. A young couple who were determined to “make their marriage work” and for all intents and purposes, have succeeded.
Yes, thirty years ago we - Mel and I - stood high on a bluff looking out over the dark green forests of the Copper River Basin. Mount Drum, Mount Sanford and several others of the Wrangell Mountains shone pure white against the cornflower blue sky in the eastern distance. A thousand feet below us the mighty Copper River rushed by on its long journey from glaciers to ocean. We stood in the sunshine and cool breezes and pledged our vows to each other.
Thirty years ago! The bluff where we then stood and exchanged our vows is gone, eaten away a little bit at a time by the river below, grain of sand by grain of sand, tree by tree falling into the river and washing away into the Gulf of Alaska by the never ending forces of water and erosion. The soil is gone, the trees and grasses are gone – but our memories of that day, that place, that moment in our life remain.
Just as the Copper River has continued to flow, so also has time has continued, moment by moment, day by day, year by year. I look at my husband now and it is hard to remember what he looked like thirty years ago. Have we both changed so much? He is still himself – only older, wiser, more mature. I am still myself – at least I think I am!
I am so thankful to God that He brought this man into my life 32 years ago. I am thankful that God took me from Colorado to Alaska, from working full-time to being a student again at a Bible College where we would meet. I am thankful that He made sure that my husband was raised in a Godly family, on a homestead in the bush of Alaska – oh, not a perfect family by any means, but a family that loved the Lord and wanted to follow Him and serve Him. I am thankful that I also was raised in such a family, almost 4,000 miles away in Colorado.
Over the past two or three years I have had several women tell me, “Cindie, you have no idea how (lucky, fortunate, blessed – take your pick of adjectives) you are for having such a husband as Mel.” How do I respond to that? I consider each person who is saying this to me and I think of what little I know of her own life, the joy and the pain that she has revealed to me. One is single, never married. Another is single, never married, the mother of an adult son. Two or three others were married but are now divorced. Another is married, but unhappily married.
I consider them all, all of their circumstances of which I am aware. I consider my own life and hold it up side by side to what I know of their lives. And there is no way to compare! Each of our lives is so different, our life choices and opportunities so different, our personalities so different, our view of and experience with men so different.
I do not know why God has blessed me with a very happy marriage. I did absolutely nothing to deserve this gift, but I praise Him and thank Him often for it. I struggle with fear of losing my husband in death, but I do not fear growing old with him. I feel the very safest when I am lying beside him at night, my head on his shoulder and we are talking about whatever comes to mind. I know that no matter where we are – Colorado, Alaska, Ukraine, anywhere in the world – as long as he is holding me, I am home, I am where I belong.
Yes, this is a gift from God. This is a huge gift from God, a priceless gift. I thank Him with all of my being, with everything that I am or ever will be – thank Him for giving me the husband that I have. Thank you, Father in Heaven for my husband!
I look forward to the next thirty years.
Thirty years!
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