Today is our 12 year wedding anniversary, and I'm remembering one of the Bible verses that we used for our wedding:

Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.

When we got married, I understood this passage more from the perspective of passion, and emotion - the powerful feelings of being in love. Today I still understand it this way, perhaps even more than I did then. But the reason is that love has been forged in the fires of life. Through joys and struggles, the good moments between us and the dark moments.

A few nights ago I watched the Quicktime video interview of Howard Dean and his wife. One thing that Dean said really stuck out to me (I'm not particularly a Dean fan):

Howard Dean: She is a huge influence on me. Uh, principally because our marriage is based on respect, and friendship, uh, and those are … I mean, being in love with somebody is a terrific thing, but if you only marry somebody because they're in love … you're in love with them, that's why the divorce rate is 50 percent. And, she's a real life partner, not just a, you know, somebody I fell in love with. She is a friend and I respect her, and that is enormous for me. Plus, she's a lot smarter than I am.

It takes more than being in love. A lot more. It takes friendship, respect, vulnerability, the ability to say "I was wrong", and a whole host of other qualities. So when I look back at the Song of Solomon, I understand that the love being written about is not just the heat and passion of being in love, but it is all those other qualities as well. And that's what the writer means when he says

If one were to give
all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.

So thank you, Julie for 12 years of sharing joy, happiness, pain, and suffering. I don't think I really understood what I was getting into, and I think I realize now that I still don't fully grasp it, but I'm looking forward to continuing to discover it with you.

Happy Anniversary!

I Love You!