Two weeks ago today my husband, Eric, and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.

It was such a wonderful day filled with romantic surprises and incredible blessings.  But there is a simple, yet profound truth that I have been pondering ever since.

He chose me.  Eric chose Julie to be his wife, to have and to hold, until death do us part.

Being chosen is such a rich and glorious blessing that I have been absolutely awestruck by recently.

WARNING:  I just have to put this disclaimer on here for all who continue to read past this point.  This post is not meant to brag or to set a foundation of comparison to any one.  It is not meant to make anyone ill of disgust.  If anything, this post is a blunt reminder to myself of how blessed I really am and to help me deepen my gratitude  for what I already have.  It is also, in part, repentance for all of the things that I have taken or do take for granted in my life.   

I was chosen.  This man asked me, of all women, to join him and walk along with him for all of his days on this side of Heaven.

We promised through good times and bad, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part.  Words that flow so easily when one is young, but grow in richness, depth and meaning as time passes over the years.

Here is what I have been wide-eyed in amazement over recently.  Eric choosing me was not a one time act.  Choosing me is daily devotion and sometimes a momentary act as circumstances are presented.  For 15 years or about 5,475 days this man has woken up  in the morning, faced everything that life has thrown at him and continued to choose me.  Wow!

He has been faithful in the big ways, keeping me his only partner in life, and faithful in such small ways, as turning the lights off on our way to bed at night.  He has been there through the birth of our two children and run silly little errands too numerous to count.  He remembers the smallest details about me, including so many personal preferences.  When there is a crisis (be it real or one that only is apparent to me) he divides my sorrows.  When there is a rich joy or exciting news he multiplies the celebration.

There are so many ways in which this man blesses me.  I need to list them much more often than I do now.  But out of all the blessings that he pours upon me, I think one of the ones that I overlook the most is the blessing of being chosen.

I am going to be completely honest, I can get riled up over the silliest little things.  I can be so demanding as to what I want.  My expectations in life can truly be so high in the sky that one can hardly see them, let alone attain them.  I can get very one track focused attempting to finish something that makes a vision in my head a reality, so often which I believe I fall incredibly short of which leads to tenacious re-trying to reach the preconceived achievement.

So I acknowledge right now that I am not an easy person to live with twenty four seven.  Did I mention that I tend to be emotional, too?  I cry a lot over some of the silliest things.  Let’s just say I am a work in progress where hard hats are still required.  Now, is my dear and darling Eric perfect.  Absolutely not.  I will not list any of his faults, because I just do not feel it would be right.  But, I do want you as my readers to know that I do not try to ignore or glaze over reality.

Through it all, Eric still choose me.  What a blessing!

We are two very broken people attempting to have one unified marriage.

How does that work…having two broken people and one unified marriage?

We could not do in on our own.  Believe me we have tried.  We had ok moments and some good moments even, but on our own strength we were exhausted and fell short so often.

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”  Romans 7:21

We needed Christ.  We needed Him to be the center of our unified life, our marriage.  We needed and still need to recognize that God works in so many amazing ways within our marriage to make us each individually like Jesus.  We need God’s strength, God’s love, God’s compassion, God’s mercy and God’s grace flowing in us and through us to really make our marriage thrive.  We need Him so that we can be there for each other, so that we can continue to choose each other for the days that make up our years to come no matter what we are feeling like on any one given day.

Continuing to choose a spouse on days that they are not at their best, days that we are not at our best, days when the outside world is demanding so much of us, pulling us apart rather than pushing us together, that is work that is going to take God’s strength when we have reached the end of our own.

Today I just need to take this moment to recognize what a blessing I have that day after day after day, Eric would choose me.

For all of you who are reading this who are waiting to be chosen and for those who read this who have had someone make a choice to leave you.  My heart goes out to all of you.  As I write this I find myself praying a great many tears for you.  I remember how many times I was not the one who was chosen, instead finding myself the one left behind.  I know there are so many more out there who have absolutely horrific experiences of pain, hurt and absolute abandonment of which I have no clue about.  I do not want to assume that I know exactly what you have faced, because I do not know.

But, here is an absolute truth that there is one who chooses you.

^“4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”  Ephesians 1:4-6

Before anything in this world was created, YOU WERE CHOSEN.  Chosen in love to be holy and blameless in His sight, you were freely chosen and the ultimate price was paid for you through Jesus.  A beloved sacrifice to bring a beloved child home.  All this in accordance to God’s perfect will and for His pleasure.

My dear reader God does not chose you because He has to, He chooses you because He wants to.  As John 15:16 says, you are chosen and appointed to bear fruit.  He wants to give you abundant life and bring forth a bountiful harvest of fruit through you to nourish those blessed to have you in their lives.

This is a blessing that is beyond the greatest of joys that being chosen by my husband, being chosen by my Lord.  For it was He who chose me so long before Eric did.  There is not a breath of my life that God has not chosen to see.  That is as true for you as it is for me.  God chooses you and wants to be a part of ever breath you take.

Today, may we all feel blessed and filled with joy knowing that we have been chosen.

Dear and Beloved Lord,

Thank You so very much for opening my eyes and helping me to see with new light the amazing blessing of being chosen by my husband.  Thank You for the divine revelation about what that means, both on a grand scale and in the tiniest of details. 

Lord, it is so hard to fathom, to really feel in our hearts the power of Your choice, Your act of choosing us before the world even began.  I know there are so many days where I certainly feel like I would not even chose myself.  You, Lord, know the deepest, darkest and ugliest parts of me and yet You still say that according to Your pleasure You choose me. 

Lord, I pray for ever single one of my readers, no matter how these words get in front of them, whenever that happens, I pray that there would be a new realization in their mind, in their heart and in their spirit that they have been chosen.  Help us to know that when people have walked out our of lives, when we have been abandoned, when we have left behind, when we were not the ones that were chosen, in the midst of our deepest pains and brokenness that You choose us.  Every moment of every day, for all of our days You choose us Lord. 

May our awe-struck realization of this blessing bring us to deep praise and adoration for You, Lord.  May Your pleasure for choosing us be magnified if that is possible.  

Still in great amazement and wonder, in Jesus’ name, Amen.