Not long ago, I went to an event.
It was a beautiful event.
I’m glad I went.
The occasion was for one friend to celebrate another friend, his wife.
When the ceremony was about to end, my friend’s wife approached the microphone.
And she gave him bouquets of flowers, words of love and affirmation.
Pledging her devotion;
Remembering the things he had said and done.
Outwardly, I celebrated, because wisdom is to rejoice with those who rejoice.
But inwardly, I was perplexed by the war inside of me.
One side of me was happy to see the power of love on display.
The other side of me was asking too many questions about me on somebody else’s day.
The nerve of me!
Questions like “What about me?”
Statements like “I have never heard anyone say things like that about me.”
“What about the good things I said and did?”
In the stillness of contemplation,
I heard my father’s voice so clearly, saying, “You have never heard her affirm the things you have said and done. Because she always affirms who you are.”
The she that he was talking about is my wife.
At the time, I was too shook by the subtleness of covetousness to comprehend my own blessedness.
It was not that I coveted what he has.
Because I have my own, and she is bad.
I’m talkin, 1970’s thicker than a snicker, bad.
Beautiful, sweet, dark-skinned, Coke bottle glass figure.
Not only my type, but the prototype.
More than that, she’s a woman of God.
Brothers and sisters, I gotta tell ya. She’s everything I’ve ever prayed and asked God for in a wife;
My friend and my love for life.
So, I did not covet what my friend has.
Rather, I coveted the words of praise I heard.
In the quiet, I realized my sin.
Finally, I could see.
After confession and the prayer of repentance,
I heard my father utter his own words of affirmation to me.
“It does not matter what you have said and what you have done.”
“It matters who you are.”
“It matters that you are my son, only because of my Son.”
“It matters that you trust what he has said and what he has done when everything is said and done.”
Selah
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