This is my beloved, and this is my friend...

When I read this verse, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend” from Song of Songs 5:16, I can relate. I always say I married my best friend, but never fully understood what that meant until the last few years. Difficult times, trying times can either tear apart or make stronger and I can truly say ours has gotten stronger. Right now we feel like we are scaling the side of a mountain because my beloved has been battling a bout of diverticulitis since January 1st of this year, and the antibiotics have only helped to make him feel sicker. We have been in constant prayer and feel God’s loving hands upon us, giving of glimpses of His provision along the way. Let me share a for instance: A few Sundays ago we had a visitor at our church; someone was training at the Gap and decided he’d come and check out our services for the day. During the Sunday school hour we began to pray and lay hands of my husband and this visitor was praying and started to sing a song, it was an old Petra song and I didn’t understand the significance of this until later that day. You see in 1994 my than boyfriend, now husband, was in a terrible vehicle accident, as new believers the ONLY tape I had was Petra and I would listen to those songs over and over again as I drove to the hospital each day. And it was at that moment that I could sense God’s presence reminding me that He is with us, that He got us thru that awful time in our lives and He continues to provide and He will see us thru this as well. I love when God reveals himself that way, he’s so awesome!! Yesterday we met with a surgeon from Hershey Med. Center and they scheduled my beloved for bowel resection surgery, they will go in, laparoscopically, and remove the damaged section of bowel and reattach. And we felt such PEACE with that decision…scary, YES, but an overwhelming sense of peace. Will there be more tears, I’m sure but that Peace that is beyond understanding is with us and I am so thankful for that.
My husband’s coping mechanism has been his guitar, playing and worshipping calms the soul and I’m so thankful I’ve been here to capture some of those moments…