Here's the girls loving the newly (and welcome) warm weather!


A Husband’s Heart

During this long season of sickness, I have loved learning how to serve my wife. Not there has been too much that I could actually do to take away the sickness, but I have been able at times to do various things that at least made her somewhat comfortable or relaxed. For a while, it was all about having a hot cup of ginger peach tea waiting by the bed before she even woke up. These days it’s Tang. I know it’s a little thing, but I quickly found that my favorite activity of the day was making that tea just the way she likes it (not too strong) and sneaking into the bedroom to leave it waiting.

Learning to be a servant is one of the hardest and most will-breaking things a person can do because we’re so naturally selfish; but honestly, serving my wife has been easy, because from the first moment I saw her face over ten years ago I’ve been in love like some kind of mad man. It may be hard to learn servanthood because we love ourselves so much, but give us something we love more than ourselves and it’s a piece of cake.

I can remember being a senior in high school (when I first met and started listening to my pastor) and hearing how important the concept of slavery is in the New Testament. I had grown up in church and had never heard this before... This idea that as people purchased by the blood of Christ, we are now his slaves. Of course, I remember people mentioning the notion of slavery to Christ, but as soon as they said it they would jump back ten feet and qualify this word by talking about the whole bond-slave thing… you know, where a slave set free decided to go back to his master because he loved him so much, so it wasn’t really like slavery at all… I was sort of shocked to discover that the language of the New Testament was clear… 44 times it talks about us being slaves to God and word they’re using is just the word slave. They just say, “slave of Christ” or “now that you have been set free from sin and enslaved to God” like in Romans 6:22.

As I was starting to get used to this idea of being Christ’s flat-out slave, I was shocked again when I heard Tom talk about the fact that Jesus is going to slave after us one day… Luke 12:37 says, “It will be good for those servants (slaves) whose master finds them watching when He comes. I tell you the truth, He will dress Himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.” Now, those words for serving and waiting on are all about slavery! He is going to slave after us when we all get to heaven! Can you even handle this?

I remember the first time I heard about this verse, and I thought it was scandalous! I mean, I understand us being His slaves, but come on, Him slaving after us? It seemed to me a condescension too great… an unbelievable and outrageous oversight. Surely God will not be man’s slave?! But then I remembered something… this banquet Jesus was talking about will be His wedding reception, and we are His bride. This isn’t an outrage. It’s a husband’s love. I can still remember my wedding reception… just asking Christy over and over again if she was okay and if I could get her anything at all. And now after years of being married my greatest joy of the day is making that tea in the morning. It’s easy to have the slave mindset when you’re a husband in love.