Today
I’m celebrating the best day of my life, June 16, 2000. That day I pledged to honor the love that God
gave Amy and me.
Amy
and I are celebrating what I am calling our Golden Anniversary—16 years of marriage on the 16th
of June. And today is a palindrome—6-16-16.
But
most importantly I remember that my marriage to Amy is a call. Only God could have brought Amy & I
together for our first date on the Monday after Father’s Day in 1998. Neither one of us knew each other; we would
have never connected in the networks in which we traveled; we lived busy lives
in different places. I am convinced
that God orchestrated our meeting. God
nudged Amy to put a personal ad in the Rochester Post Bulletin; God had been
nudging me for a long time through a number of events to consider calling a
personal ad. And voila! On June 18, 1998
I saw her ad and fell in love as I listened to her voice as she described herself
on her message. With trepidation I left my own message. She eventually called me back, we talked for a long
time, went on a date the next day at Silver Lake Park in Rochester, and on that first date knew (at least for me) that we would be together. Only God could have maneuvered that.
A
year later on the Monday after Father’s Day, June 20, 1999, I got on my knees
at the same park and asked her to marry me. The atmosphere and weather were almost the same
as our first date a year earlier. It was
magical
We committed our lives to each other on the Friday before Father’s Day, June 16, 2000, at
First Presbyterian Church in Rochester.
The theme for our service was “two journeys one love.” We celebrated during that service her
Catholic identity, my Presbyterian identity and all the ways that we would
join hands in one love.
We’re
sixteen years older, but the theme of “two journeys one love” still defines
us. Both of us are fiercely independent
people who are fiercely loyal to our traditions. We continue to join hands
to live and love together. It’s a faith
journey. Today we pause to celebrate. Yay, God!
