Easter, Valentines, And A Good Man

I was stretched out next to him on the couch one evening, and something made me think of old English literature.

Quote the Canterbury Tales Prologue for me, I said.

Naaaaah, he said.

Pleeeeease. Quote it for me. Batting eyelashes.

And so he began to quote –stage voice locked on and right hand raised quite Shakesperianish.

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour…

He couldn’t recall anymore, but I said he was so romantic. Then he was off and investigating on his smart phone other classic literature quotes he could read to me, because he seemed to have a good thing going, with the wife all swooning over his words.

You should blog about this, he said. About how amazingly romantic I’m being.

And so I am.

But there is a greater romance in our house, and it happens on the nights when he declares Tuna Helper is, indeed, an actual meal and is the best food a woman has ever cooked.

Or when he finds me curled in a fetal position on the living room floor, surrounded by bank statements and checkbook registers and a $200 error not in our favor and hugs me long and tells me my accounting mistake isn’t a big deal.

Or when he has to go downstairs to the dryer for clean underwear, and I promise I’ll fold those that day. Then the next day and maybe the next he still has to get underwear out of the dryer. And he doesn’t even complain.

Or when he tells me how beautiful I am and getting more beautiful, and I think –are you seeing the same person I’m seeing in the mirror every day?

We’ve never really done much for Valentine’s Day –no gifts or big need to celebrate fancy, but I always say when a man treats you well the 364 days leading up to the day –well who needs it then? Weren’t we living Valentine’s Day when he stroked my hair on those nights and months after my dad went to be with the Lord and I couldn’t stop crying?

Do you know I love you today? he always says to me.

Christ has this kind of everyday love that is too big for a one-day celebration.

A love that gets bigger on the days when you feel like you’re failing and fat and unloveable. There he is whispering in your ear that no –this day is the one he came for. This day is the one he died for, so he could have and hold you from this day forward.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (Romans 5:8 NIV)

So I have to tell my husband that on Valentine’s Day I look back and I can see that his love has been true, which makes my arms open a little wider to Christ.

If Matt can love me on the horrible days, maybe the love of Christ isn’t too good to be true after all.

So I wish you a happy life and whisper in your ear…

Do you know Jesus loves you today?