Sixty years and counting!

Congratulations to my dear Mum and Dad!  Today you begin your sixty-first year together as partners on this journey of life.  Thank you for your love and commitment to one another all these years.  I have noticed your constant faithful caring and thoughtfulness to each other through both good times and those more challenging times.  You have been steady and consistent and have done your best even when it has not been easy.  You have made allowances for areas of struggle in each other and have  selflessly supported one another.

Your love for each other has given deep foundations of security for many of us whose lives you touch.  You are an inspiration for me and for our children.  Your steady love for one another will continue to bear fruit over many generations.

By the sea we are always reminded of the impact of the waves.   It is the waves that smooth the sandstone and create beautiful and surprising creations over the years.  Waves wash up all those interesting delights along the shore.  Similarly, the steady love and commitment that you have for one another gives great gifts for eternity.

I know best those gifts that you have given to me and my family.  Often in my own relationships I think of your steady love for one another and take a few more deep breaths of forgiveness and start again.  As we celebrated yesterday, I thank you for your opening embrace for your four grandchildren by adoption.  Your steadiness has brought hope of the possibility of lasting relationships.  As the girls seek to rebuild their own lives, they truly have increasingly felt washed by the waves of your love on their shores.    Although they often have times of feeling like disconnected driftwood being aimlessly tossed around in the waves,  being welcomed into celebrations of faithfulness year after year brings memories shared and gives the security of strong and steady rock supporting them!  Their rocky beaches  are washed steadily by your faithful love and hospitality that gradually will give stability and hope for commitment and good things discovered.  I think they are increasingly knowing that the shape of their lives has incredible beauty even by virtue of its long journey and weathered and unique appearance.  They are beginning to feel like the treasures that they are, appreciated like the unique rocky formations on the beach and the delightful driftwood creations safely placed on the family mantel.  They are recognizing that they are special and indeed a part of this shoreline where they will be enjoyed and delighted in forever.

Not all of us will have sixty years together.  We all have the new start of today.  May we be faithful in love to those around us in the reality of right now, remembering that the love that we express today will, like the waves,  make their mark!  Today may we appreciate the unique beauty of one another, treasuring and accepting one another as you began in your care and commitment for one another those sixty years ago.  Thank you for this precious legacy of love, dear Mum and Dad!  For each day together we are thankful!