Today Nancy and I celebrate 15 years of life together. In that time we’ve lived in 7 cities. We’ve had three babies. They’re not babies any more. Lauren is 13 and will start 8th grade this year – her last year of middle school. Anna is 11 and will start 6th grade, her first year of middle school. Teddy is 6 and will begin 1st grade.

15 years from now I will be 53 years old. My oldest child will be 28. My youngest 21. It is very likely I will be a “grandpa” by that point. I hope so, though it seems weird to think about that now.

But the last 15 years have gone by in a blur. I couldn’t have predicted all that would transpire. I anticipate the next 15 will flash by as well. As I look back across the landscape of the last decade and a half, there are a few things that stand out.

I remember how nervous I was on our wedding day. I remember the first time Nancy told me we were expecting. I remember all three births at home with Susan our midwife. I remember learning how to do life with Nancy. We learned to fight. We learned to make up. We learned to love and serve. We learned to be one another’s biggest cheerleader. We learned how to be parents. We’re still learning all that too.

I remember the countless ways God has directed our lives, graciously covered our failures and mistakes, miraculously washed away our sin, healed our past, and given us ever increasing vision for our future. And I remember today that God speaks to me.

He spoke to me about Nancy. He spoke to me about ministry. He spoke to me in the wilderness times. He spoke to me in times of blessing and abundance. He spoke to me about my past. He spoke to me about my future. He spoke to me about my identity. My very life has been formed, transformed, and is sustained by his voice. There really is no other way to live that can legitimately be called life. I am thankful today for the voice of God, and for the reality his voice has breathed into existence in my life. Where else can I go? You have the words of eternal life.

I am mindful today that my marriage is something God has spoken into being. We are together because of his voice. We are what we are together because of his voice. There is an ever increasing sense of his breath shared between us. I don’t know how to say it better than that. It is beautiful to experience but difficult to explain. In the messiness of life we share something wonderful, something elegant, something sacred, something of immeasurable worth. We dance, but in the mud and in the rain and we smile all along because we’re together. In the day to day routines and rhythms, we enact an eternal romance of pursuit and love. Only God’s voice can do that. I’m thankful that he speaks.

Can you hear him?