Finding Graceful Love

With time you get the chance to reflect on how things started and how things have happened right up and until this very moment. This is about the love I found in the woman that God allowed me to marry.

“My life had come to end. I was ready to give in.

I closed my eyes in one last silent prayer.

Only to look up and find you standing there.”

— Earth, Wind & Fire, “I’m In Love”

Perspective

I have always believed that God meets us in the places we least expect. Often it happens when we have run out of strength and our own plans have completely unraveled. That lyric from Earth, Wind & Fire captured exactly where I was when Kim entered my life.

I was young, just coming out of a marriage that had already failed before life really began. No kids, but plenty of pain. I felt the rejection not only of a broken relationship but also the sting of turning to parents for support and finding none. I was, to put it plainly, at rock bottom.

And yet, that is where grace does its best work.

Because in that season of surrender, when I had no words left but a silent prayer, God was already preparing something extraordinary. I looked up and there she was. Not a rescue. Not a rebound. A reminder that God still had His hand on my story.

We met. We grew. We stumbled forward. Somehow that moment of divine timing turned into thirty-five years of marriage. That is not a sentence I take lightly.

Our wedding song said it best: “That’s What Love Is All About.” The lyrics to that song are so perfect for what our marriage would be. God must have strongly influenced that choice.

Have a listen on Spotify

But back then, I did not really know what love was all about. Not the way I do now. Love seemed simple. Attraction, connection, shared dreams. It took years to realize that love’s real definition is written in forgiveness, in patience, and in small acts of faithfulness.

There were times when love looked quiet, when the best we could do was sit in silence and still be together. Other times it looked loud, with laughter in the kitchen, road trips, and the sound of our kids’ voices filling a house that God built one day at a time.

We have changed. Life has shaped us. Faith has sustained us. Grace has filled the cracks we could not.

When I look back now I see God’s fingerprints all over our story. The subtle winks that told me He was near. The job that came at the right moment. The move that healed a season. The prayer that seemed unanswered but later made perfect sense.

Graceful love is not effortless. It is choosing each other over and over, especially when you do not feel like it. It is trusting that God’s plan for two people is still unfolding, even when you cannot see how.

That is what love is all about.

Thirty-five years later, I still look up. And she is still standing there.

Prayer

Father, thank You for how You love us through one another. Thank You for the gift of a love that teaches me grace. Help me keep seeing her and You with open eyes.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.