Just a little story I wanted to share with you…
Over the weekend, my wife and I drove to Ripon, WI (a little over an hour north of us) to attend the baptism of our new baby niece. Being family, we were able to sit close to the front of the church during the service so that we could catch all the baptism action up close.
After the service was over, and families began to set up for a little lunch/party in the church basement, we came across a tall but withering elderly man standing near the basement steps. He was looking at us with a giant smile spread across his face. We smiled back at him and slowed our pace as we noticed him shuffling towards us.
“You two must not be married, right?”
We held up our left hands, displayed our rings, and corrected him.
“Are you newlyweds? How long have you been married?”
We told him that we have been married for almost 3 years now. He showed surprise on his face.
Apparently, during the service, he noticed how we were sitting. In church, generally speaking, my wife and I will sit holding hands. While we sing hymns, she holds the hymnal and I put my arm around her. It’s not something we planned, but it’s one of those little marriage things that develops and you just kinda keep doing it after a while.
This old man put his arm around me and revealed that he assumed we weren’t married because we were so affectionate towards each other, and he was surprised that we were still so affectionate even after being married a couple years.
I could go into a long soapbox rant about how husbands should always be affectionate with their wives and so on, but this was a well-intentioned man who was sharing a lighthearted laugh with us.
We smiled broadly and I patted him on the back when he told us that he and his wife have been married for 67 years. Soon, his little old wife appeared (she had been in the bathroom, which is why he was standing there).
We congratulated them both on their 67 years together, and we chuckled with them as we walked away. We parted as he gave me this timeless piece of advice, one husband to another:
“Some days, you’ll be wrong!”
I wish there was something I could say here to impart some wisdom to you, dear reader, but I don’t. I was just happy to speak briefly with a kindly old couple. I hope someday my wife and I can proudly tell another young married couple that we’ve been married 67 years.
With all the frustration, heartache, disaster, tragedy, bad news, and general unhappiness in the world, it’s heartwarming to see two people who have been through it all and came out the other side, still together after all these years.
And if that doesn’t make you smile a little and say “Aww”: what are you, a robot?