The Sweetest Sound

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.
(Proverbs 18:22 – ESV)

On our anniversary day, I think back to a time when I came face to face with the reality of my love for my wife. Oh yes, certainly I did love her and I knew it, and I knew that she knew it too. We have a great marriage, and we go through the ups and downs and “all arounds”, and we grow through it all, to the glory of God, we pray.

Now I don’t want to sound all pious about our “picture book” relationship, I want to be real, and to help you with some hope. The truth is that sometimes things don’t work out like we want them to, but the Lord of Life has a way of helping you regain a true focus and rediscover the depth of devotion when the shallow waters of situation come roaring into your mind.

You may be distracted, disappointed, disgruntled, or in despair, but I hope God will help you apply this to your situation. He can turn any situation into a celebration of Him and those good things He allows us, even if only for a season.

You see, we were in church one Sunday, and my wife had a sudden, intense attack of pain, and she couldn’t tell if it was just some muscle thing or something much more serious, because it was near her heart region. She was in incredible agony, and she had that look of “ultimate concern” on her face as tears were streaming down her clothes. The church had the look of horror as we ran her out of the building as fast and as calm as we could.

We rushed her to the emergency room, and they were able to stabilize her quite quickly. Thank the Lord, it didn’t seem serious, but even after several visits to other doctors, no one could ever tell us what actually happened or any root problem there might be. In any event, we were relieved, as was the church when they found out she would be okay.

A few days later, my wife and I were sitting around the house in the morning hours. I was doing some writing at the computer, and she was eating breakfast. Now my wife and I both have these little “noises” we each make, and I won’t go into all of them here, but it can be quite entertaining to say the least. However, sometimes our little “noises” become nauseating to us, ourselves and to each other. Some noises we can “appreciate” more than others, if you know what I mean.

One such noise that was bothering me to no end on this day was that all I could seem to hear from the other room was my wife crunch, crunch, crunching her cereal. Munch, munch, munch, crunch, crunch, crunch, I was about to scream out, I tell you the truth. This was one of those little “noises” that could really get to me, especially when I was in the middle of doing “important work” like writing my sermon.

All of a sudden, it would seem as if God crunched right down on my head and munched right into my heart. It was then I realized that while I had always detested the sound of the crunching of cereal before, to be able to hear it now was sweet music to my ears, for it meant that she was alive, and she was here. I now did more than “appreciate” it; I relished every little noise, every little wonderful sound! Crunch, crunch, crunch – It was her! Munch, munch, munch – My baby was still with me! That munching became the melody of love to my heart.

Now I am a lover of classical music, and I have heard many live orchestras perform many great works of music in my life, but no Bach, Beethoven, or Brahms could have lifted me to such heights as I felt that day.

I hope you find the joy I found…the day I heard the sweetest sound.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©