July 12th Countdown for Hannah & Derick

Gracious God, one year ago today, you joined Derick and Hannah together in the sacrament of marriage. You continue to hold them together. Your very grace sustains them daily: in every season, in every struggle, in every joy, in every heartache, and in every blessing. We thank you for the love with which you have loved them and the love that enables them to love one another with tenderness, humility, patience, sacrifice, imagination, wonder and delight. We thank you for this love that, to borrow from C.S. Lewis, “is a deep unity; maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by the grace which both of them ask and receive from God.” Yes, Lewis was right: “’Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity; but this quieter love enables them to keep the promise. It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.” ( Mere Christianity ).  On their wedding anniversary, we thank you, O Lord, for the explo...