What Love Looks Like

I talked to a woman a few weeks ago – married 60 years to her husband – who said something remarkable to me.

Her husband has suffered a number of debilitating medical issues during the past 10 years. The latest requires she help feed him through a tube surgically placed in his stomach.

“I didn’t know when I was 18 that 60 years later we’d be here, doing this.” Then, with a conspicuous strength and poise, she added that remarkable addendum, “But this is what I signed on for – in sickness and in health.”

Oh! You want to know what love looks like?

THAT’S what it looks like. That’s what commitment to vows made to each other in the sight of God looks like.

Young marrieds – even long-time marrieds -- pay closer attention to the old and graying couples around you – your grandparents or parents, you aunts and uncles, even to strangers holding hands as they walk into church, or into the supermarket.

When you vowed before God and family and friends that day at an altar, you promised to love and to cherish, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness or in health. To take care of each other. Until death parts you.

That’s what real love looks like.