This is a picture of my husband and me. This is US. The picture was taken in 1999 at the wedding of our friends. My husband was the best man and I was the maid of honor. We first met in 1997 when my friend started dating his friend. You know how that goes. It’s the inevitable question. Do you have a friend for my friend? I can still remember our first double date. It was twenty years ago. When my oldest daughter first saw this picture, she asked US, “who are these people”? When we told her, “it was US”, she didn’t believe it.
The truth is…I don’t recognize these people either
When I look at them, I don’t know who they are
So much has happened since this picture was taken. We got married and I got a bonus son. We had a daughter and then another daughter. Then, a year after our youngest daughter was born, our son had a son. And now we’re grandparents. Yes, there is someone who calls me Grandma and my husband Grandad.
And it makes US happy
There’s been jobs and new jobs. Cars and new cars. We’ve watched our siblings get married and had front row seats to the birth of ten nieces and nephews. We’ve painted entire apartment buildings together and we’ve gone on more cruises than I can count.
The truth is… there’s been some good times, but there’s been some not so good times too
There was that one year when we couldn’t stand each other. The year when I said up and he said down. When I said right and he said left. When I said blue and he said green. For some reason, we just couldn’t get on the same page that year.
But somehow… we made it through
And here we are…twenty years from our first date
At first, I thought I didn’t recognize the people in the picture because my husband and I have put on a few pounds over the years. Okay, a little more than a few. But that’s not it. I don’t recognize the people in this picture, because they don’t exist anymore. The people in this picture were individual people with individual purposes living individual lives.
They’re not US
In 2004, when my husband and I were married, those two-individual people became one. We are now living one life – together with one purpose. I’m just beginning to understand what that really means. What it means to have a life so interconnected with someone else that you literally become one.
The truth is… I’m glad we are not those people anymore
I like who we’re becoming – I like US
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24 NASB)
Karris