An anniversary note to my wife

OK, not my wife. A friend of mine celebrated his anniversary a few days ago and wrote the following note to his wife which I found quite touching. He said I could post it under anonymity, so here it is:

Dearest [Sweetheart],

Four years - as you say, "That's a long time." It probably feels longer than it is, because we've been through so much throughout this time: Changes in friends, home, culture, language and work; emotional crises, unprocessed traumas, and broken dreams; contradictory personalities, mutual disappointment and work, work, work ... . What else lies ahead of us?

I like this geographical metaphor. I imagine Moses standing on that mountain in Moab peering into the Promised Land - that land of our dreams which Abraham compared to the Garden of Eden. He never did enter it, though his grave was never found and some say his body's with God ... still waiting for that day. He had a long history of struggle behind him, suffering for the sins of others, suffering for his own sins, yet always hanging onto the One he knew was his only source of hope. "If you do not go with us, then do not send us at all." And he didn't just hang on stubbornly to his Rock for his own sake, for his own salvation. He did it for his bedraggled people. God offered to start all over again with just him, but he begged God to forgive them, and in the end he was as faithful to God's covenant partners as God himself would be.

I love you [Sweetheart] and I'm going to hang on to God so that he will hang on to the both of us. We're a bedraggled pair, cut and bruised by our circumstances and by ourselves, but just like Israel God has got something in store for us. And just like Israel, his plan isn't just for us, it's for all of creation. I'm like Moses, standing on that mountain yearning to enter, yearning to have my Sabbath rest. But I don't want to go in without you, or without my friends, or without the faces of those lost sheep I see every day. So let's hang on together - hang on to each other, hang on to God and keep our hopes up that this journey has its sense and will have its reward and that God will continue to provide us with manna along the way, until the day we can sit at the wedding feast of the Lamb, together, and with all of creation.

I love you,

[***]