After All of These Years

So Sunday afternoon after church, I needed to go to Newport to get a prescription that wasn't ready when I got off work on Saturday. Anyway, Dale had decided to go with me and so on the way there we had decided to eat at the Pig-N-Pancake. I know, I know....funny name but an OK breakfast for the price. When we arrived at the restaurant, they were really busy, as usual on Sunday afternoons. We were seated at a table that was one of many in a string of tables. On one side of the tables was a long bench that went the length of the wall, and the other side of the tables were chairs. Dale sat on the bench side and I was seated on the chair across from him. We were seated between two families: one with two children and one with one young boy. It was a bit tight and we felt a bit confined, but we were there to eat so no big deal.

After being served our coffee, we soon found ourselves alone after the families seated at the tables close to us finished their meals and left. As people began to clear out, we were served our breakfast and began the process of buttering the pancakes, etc. The radio was playing in the background and as is not unusual, Dale began to sing along with the radio. I was pouring syrup on my pancakes and the waitress was clearing a table next to us. I realized that Dale wasn't just singing, but that he was singing to me! Then I realized what song he was singing. It was a song by Eric Clapton and it dawned on me that he was singing the song TO me when it came to the line in the song that goes, "And then she asked me,' Do I look alright.' and I said, 'Yes, you look wonderful tonight." At this point he continued singing and was at the point when the song goes, "And the wonder of it all, is you just don't realize how much I love you." At the moment I look up from my pancakes the waitress lets out a "Ohhhhhhhhhhh, how sweet!" and as I look at my hubby of more than 24 years, I am taken back to our wedding day. I have a picture that was taken of Dale just as I began to walk down the aisle and he sees me for the first time on our wedding day. It is a sweet picture of him and his eyes are so expressive. I LOVE this picture and it makes me cry each time I look at it. Always has.

Anyway, so there I am in the Pig-N-Pancake, Dale continuing to sing to me, and what do I do? I kick him under the table, my face turns red and a say to him, "What are you doing?!" He says, "I'm letting you know how much I love you. I don't think you realize how much I love you." Now, he has I tear in his eye and here we are in the Pig-N-Pancake weepy-eyed and falling in love a bit more than we were a moment ago. He smiled with a tear still stick in his eye and says, "I really do love you ya' know. I mean I LOVE you! More today than yesterday and more tomorrow than today."

It was a "moment" for sure. As we left the restaurant to go about the rest of our day, we walked hand and hand to our care and I realized just how much I love him. Sometimes it seems that my life gets so busy and so crazy that I forget how truly blessed I am. How truly blessed my marriage is and how very under-grateful I am at times for the man that God has placed in my life. By all human standards, I should have married someone very different than the God-fearing man that the Lord gave me. But He had a different plan for my life, and for that I am ever so grateful!

That afternoon at the Pig-N-Pancake, the Lord helped me to realize just how very blessed my life has been since following Him. There have of course been moments of struggle, of up-hill climbing and of hanging on for dear life to the hem of His robe, but all-in-all, He has proven to me time and time again that like my hubby (but much more than that even) He is saying to me, "You just don't realize how much I love you." Thank you Lord for loving me eternally and for providing for me a husband that loves me while I'm here on the earth.