Celebrating Covenants

We celebrated thirty-three years of ‘the knot’ we tied in a little country church in Hugo, MN on Saturday. We had dinner at a supper club, overlooking the beautiful St. Croix River.


Beams of light broke through the day’s dark clouds just in time.


Thirty three is a lotta years, I know. We were young, 18 and 20, and starry-eyed.


His adventurous and decisive nature, balanced my cautious and compliant one perfectly.


Until it didn’t.


There was a time when the lights went dim. When the weight of our own strongholds threatened to tear us apart. I groped for my footing in the mud of anxiety. But by prayer and what could only be the grace of God in the timing of it, we landed at a couple’s retreat on Valentine’s weekend.


And light returned.


We discovered that we both had been looking at me wrong. I was grossly lacking confidence, and seeing my compliant-self as being inferior was less-than helpful in my gaining necessary confidence.


At the retreat, there were two profound things that both our ears needed to hear.
1. Your spouse is not your enemy. Satan is your enemy.
2. You balance one another out.


And then we had to write letters to one another expressing our thanks for the strengths we each brought to the marriage. I’m telling you, it was an “ah-ha” moment for us both to see that my tenderness, flexibility, and sensitivity was valuable in the equation of D and me. We had both believed that I needed to toughen up, be more decisive and determined like him.


Actually, that was true in a sense. I did need to toughen up. My value needed to be confirmed in my heart-of-hearts, based on God’s heart for me, and not my failure to be what anyone else thought I should be.


God healed our marriage as He healed my heart. 


As we were sitting there enjoying our dinner together, suddenly God gave us a rainbow outside the window. I quickly captured it, and had to edit the photo to see it more clearly since the camera is inferior to the eye:


After dinner, we walked the road outside the window delighting in the cooler air, the colors of the evening sky reflecting on the water, and the Lord’s faithfulness to us for all these years.

Yesterday morning, we didn’t intend to miss our 9:30am church service, but the sunlight coming through the trees outside of our east-facing windows, compelled us to head down to the river early with our coffee to further enjoy the unusual crisp air of the summer of 2016, we decided to go home to refill our cups. We packed a brown bag with butter, a bottle of honey and cinnamon, and stopping at the bread bakery between our house and the river, we bought a long loaf, and headed back down.

As we walked and talked, he wondered and we recalled what we were doing ten years ago, twenty years ago, and we found we were able to recall most years based on our celebrations of our anniversary. Several years we had the weekends alone because his parents took our two kiddos to Grandparent’s camp and it happened to coincide with our anniversary.


The years of our kid’s weddings, one, September 4 and the other, August 10 . . . just before and after our anniversary were both marked by our own celebrations. And on our 25th we had taken the kids and four wheelers up to the U.P. of Michigan.


The memories flowed because of the celebrations.


The rainbow was more significant because, being a bit of a social media junkie . . . I do love the online wider-view of the world, and noticing so many rainbows over the past few years, but particularly this year, one day, I felt led to make a proclamation on Facebook, that I felt God was sending us all a message in this worn and weary world:
The rainbow is My reminder of My faithfulness.


R E M E M B E R that I promised to R E M E M B E R M Y C O V E N A N T.
Genesis 9:14-15


And I promised to “share” or repost every time I saw one. It’s been so fun!


So you can imagine how I smiled at that bow peeking through the clouds on Saturday night as we celebrated our enduring covenant.


Celebrate often, our God who always keeps His promises! Luke 1:45


don't miss a thing
☞   SIGN UP TO receive THE LATEST news and updates  β˜œ
Thank you for subscribing!
By Kathy Schwanke 30 Jan, 2024
Our Human Story
By Kathy Schwanke 24 Dec, 2023
To conceive means "to seize; to take hold of"
By Kathy Schwanke 27 Sep, 2023
When the lights go out, we hear better and we grow closer.
Share by: