Happy ONE YEAR Anniversary!
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 explosion that started this marriage.
Even more, we thank you
for the quieter love that is growing and
giving them depth and maturity
to their relationship that is truly
a gift from you.
We thank you for all the ways that you
have formed them more into your image
through the joys and challenges
of growing into their marriage vows.
We thank you for who they are together;
they are better together than they could
ever be on their own.
Thank you for friends and family
who have buoyed them up and loved them
through this first year.
Thank you for “the given life,
and not the life they planned.” (Wendell Berry)
As we celebrate this first year
and look back, there is so much to be thankful for.
God of hope,
as we look ahead
to what is still to come,
we ask that you would
keep them grounded in your love,
secure in their identity in you, O Christ,
and strengthened by your Spirit.
Deepen their love for you,
for one another,
for their family and friends,
for their neighbors and church family.
May their marriage continue to be
a sign of your kingdom,
an instrument of peace and justice,
a sacrament of love
for the sake of the world.
They are not our own.
They are yours.
They belong to you,
and they belong to each other.
Make them ready and willing to continue to live wholeheartedly,
everywhere and always,
in the good times and the bad,
for you alone and
for the praise of your glory.
Amen.
adapted for Hannah and Derick from
Happy Anniversary!
Much love,
Emily
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