I Do

I could not get my wedding ring off.
My wedding ring that has been on my hand for thirty-three years.
I have long, thin fingers, but my problem is my knuckles.
They have always been the reason I need to go up a size in a ring.

I always keep my gold wedding band on my hand.
It is a part of me; without it, my hand feels empty.
I take off my anniversary ring and my mother’s ring whenever I come home.
However that gold band has been a permanent part of my hand.

I mentioned to my husband how my mother’s ring was difficult to get off my finger.
It’s fine in the winter, but when the warm weather is here, it gets stubborn.
He looked at my left hand.
Do you ever take that off? He asked pointing to my wedding band.

No, never and now I don’t think I could take it off if I wanted to, I remarked.
Why don’t you get it sized, in fact take both of the rings and get them sized.
If you need to get a new gold band, then do that, he offered.
But this is my wedding band; this is the one you put on my finger!

I was nostalgic.
I was sentimental.
I would agree to get the rings sized.
I would not agree to get a new gold band.

The inside of the ring is engraved with my husband’s name and the date of our wedding.
I remember when he was surprised that was all I wanted inside my ring.
He teased me at the time about having his name and our wedding date inside my ring.
Just so you won’t forget, right?

How could I forget?
That day was so long in coming.
It was all through high school and all through college before we were married.
A lot of living happened in the interim.

The same friends, the same memories, and the same heartaches.
It was the glue that held us together.
I was the girl who never understood the difficult math class in which we were both placed.
He was the boy who excelled.

I was the girl who purposely dropped my books on the stairwell.
He was the boy who picked them up, none the wiser for my scheme.
I was the girl who didn’t understand chemistry.
He was the boy who helped me during study hall.

I was the girl who lost her mother.
He was the boy who lost his brother a year later.
I was the girl who for some odd reason liked the number 32.
He was the boy who put the number 32 on the back of his sport shirts.

I was the girl who detested chemistry lab except that we were in that class together.
I was the girl who intentionally used the centrifuge machine at the same time he did.
I was the girl who looked down at his hand as he inserted the test tube in the machine.
I was the girl who noticed his freckled hand and wanted that hand to hold mine.

I was the girl who said, I do, and meant it.
I do through an apartment and three houses.
I do through the birth of five children and one miscarriage.
I do through the dailiness of life.

I do was the response to a covenant that was made that day.
I do was not just until something better comes along.
I do was not only when it is easy.
I do was not only when we agree.

I do meant everything that day.
I do means everything still.
I do must mean everything or else it means nothing.
It is I do, or you are left with the antithesis: I don’t.

I don’t want to walk through the dailiness of life with you.
I don’t want to be with you when it is hard.
I don’t want to be with you when you fail to see things my way.
I don’t want to be with you because there is something better, until it’s not.

Three years ago on our thirtieth anniversary, my husband gave me an anniversary ring.
It had three diamonds on a gold band.
Do you know why there are three? He asked bursting to tell me.
It is for the past, the present, and the future with you.

I think I liked his words even more than the beautiful ring.
It is for the past, the present, and the future with you.
It is for the memories, the reality, and the dreams.
It is I do lived out then, and now, and not yet.

For the Maker is your husband, the Lord Almighty is His name. (Isaiah 54:5)

I have a husband and I have a Husband.
I have a husband who promised to love me till death do us part.
I have a Husband who promised to love me for all eternity.
I have a husband who loves me and a Husband who loves me unconditionally.

That Husband enables me to love my husband well.
That Husband convicts me when I do not love my husband well.
That Husband died for me so that I can be with Him in our Heavenly Home some day.
That Husband holds me and keeps me and loves me perfectly.

That Husband gave me my husband as a gift.
My husband is God’s means of provision and protection for me and my children.
That Husband said that it is not good for man to be alone.
The Kingdom expands when I do is spoken.

A God-designed institution where I do means everything.
I do is a covenantal promise made between the husband and the wife.
I do is said before witnesses.
I do is said before the Husband of the Bride.

I am going to take my wedding ring to be sized.
My hand is empty but the promises are not.
That ring with its inscription is so meaningful to me.
One wife to one husband because God said it is good.