Faithfulness, Flowers and Forgiveness

My dear husband of 41 years demonstrates love to me all the time. Whether he remembers to charge the battery on my scooter, brings me a fresh cup of coffee in the morning, or plants the flowers I buy or receive free from my great next door neighbor, Dave never enjoyed outdoor yard work, and Garrett County features a huge rock collection in it soil. So as he patiently planted mountain lilies, stargazer lilies and replete daffodils on Tuesday, his faithfulness came shining through again. Coming home from our trip to the Flight 93 Memorial, on Wednesday, we stopped at Baker's Nursery and the man even let me buy another mum, a huge burgundy beauty in a 9-inch pot. He did that, even while knowing I couldn't dig the hole, plant the mum, cover with soil or mulch the site afterward. He illustrates amazing love and demonstrates his faithfulness to me!  I often hear about the difficult adjustment to retirement, and perhaps a year is too short a time to make any pronouncement. But I can make an observation.

As humans we will disappoint each other, often not intentionally, but we do it just the same. Our expectations, especially in marriage, go toward perfection: a Sir Galahad as a husband, or a current Hollywood starlet as a wife. The only one faithful one hundred percent, no offense to Dr. Seuss' Horton, is God. We all live like Mayzie part of the time, doing as we please and leaving someone else maintaining our responsibilities. A retired couple lives around each other more now than at any other time in their marriage. Discovering activities to do both together and apart helps develop a new richness in each individual. The mistake lies in expecting every need to be met by the other person. In Hosea God says, "I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. Only God can meet all our needs. After all, Psalm 36 teaches that  only God's faithfulness that reaches to the clouds.