As Zach and I were sitting on Delphinium knoll where we sat four years ago when Zach sang me the first of many meaningful, homespun love songs, I had this thought: Flowers are meant to fade.
Over four years ago, we met
here at GIAL while partners in the final project of a Scripture use class. After five months, we decided to pursue a future
ministering together. Two years after
that decision, and a two countries away, we were married. Wow! Marriage was so much better than we'd imagined! We experienced a rich, flowering love as we returned to Nigeria to begin
a new life together. Flowers of spring
are strikingly beautiful, and our marriage is indeed a burst of colorful,
creative beauty.
As summer comes, the
flowers turn into fruit, producing seeds that will carry on the life-giving
essence. As our love matures and changes shape, we are
looking forward to the new fruit that God will produce through our understanding
of himself and of each other. It may not
be as striking as the expectant blooms, splashes of color, and wild petal formations, but still divine and miraculous.
We are at GIAL again to learn to bear more intentional fruit. The coolest thing about God's garden of people, is that two individuals existing in the body of Christ find themselves part of a life system where fruit of crazy colors, unusual sweetness, and turbo-healthy nutrients good for the whole person abound! The fruit of a Christian marriage is so spectacular...and we are just getting the first tastes of it as we remember what God did last year in Nigeria, pray for the nations, dream of what God will do with us, and expect our GREAT God to accomplish more than we can ever imagine! We pray that our time here at GIAL will be an integral part of this new growth in us as we prepare to return to Nigeria in early 2015.
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