It was early May. Morning sunlight streamed through the kitchen window . As we sat across from each other at the kitchen table he took a sip from his coffee and announced-” I’m leaving you in September.
You don’t love me and I don’t love you.”
As he set his cup down I looked at him. He was right. There was no love.
I looked out the window and said-
“But God is the source of love- we could go to Him and He could help us learn to love one another again.”
He shook his head sadly, put down his empty cup and left the room.
I determined right then and there to do all I could to be a “1Peter3” wife by God’s Grace.
That summer the uneasy tension never let up between us.
We were polite. There were a few laughs. We had always been able to joke and find humor in any situation. We had been a comedy team for almost ten years.
In September just as the weather grew chilly and the trees started turning I was on the porch looking at him as he drove off.
I couldn’t pray that day.
As I stepped down in the chilly air to the sidewalk my Christian neighbor on the corner walked over to me. I told her I couldn’t pray. I told her he left. I told her the whole story. She prayed for me on the sidewalk right then and there.
The next morning I didn’t want to get up. I never wanted to get up again. I pulled the blanket over my head.
Then a verse came to my mind: “Sought out, a city not forsaken.”
I looked it up in the Bible and read it in Isaiah 62:12b
Then I went back and read the whole chapter.
These verses really caught my attention:
Isaiah 62:1-5
“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet,
Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness,
And her salvation like a torch that is burning.
The nations will see your righteousness,
And all kings your glory;
And you will be called by a new name
Which the mouth of the Lord will designate.
You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
And a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
It will no longer be said to you, “ Forsaken,”
Nor to your land will it any longer be said, “Desolate”;
But you will be called, “My delight is in her,”
And your land, “ Married”;
For the Lord delights in you,
And to Him your land will be married.
For as a young man marries a virgin,
So your sons will marry you;
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So your God will rejoice over you.”
I know the context is when the Lord was comforting Israel in the midst of their captivity.
Somehow those words stayed with me and made my heart rejoice.
I threw the covers off and got up to face a new day.