I wrote the following article back in March 2001, shortly after meeting Roy Moore for the first time. As of my writing this article today, Roy is either on the brink of bouncing back for a little while longer from some very serious heart complications, or he is on the verge of going home to be with his Lord and be reunited with his beloved wife, Thelma, who he has missed so much since she passed on several years ago.
As a tribute to the way one human being can touch another, I want to reprise this article and bring it back to say, “Thanks Roy, you made a difference to me and I know how much you love to fly and here is to that one day soon when you won’t even need a plane to be soaring once again.”
Too many men and women feel like they have made such big mistakes with their decision to get married. They become a bit disillusioned and almost lose interest in investing fresh and new energy to the relationship because their spouse did not turn out to be the knight in shining armor or the wonderful princess they had first hoped them to be.
Dr. Tony Evans, a great preacher who always challenges the heart, tells this amusing but all too true story that illustrates my above statements. He tells of a man who fell head over heels in love with an opera singer. He heard her sing and was so enchanted by her voice that he was utterly convinced that he could spend the rest of his earthly life in total bliss with a woman who could make music like that.
The man was so hopelessly devoted to what came out of her mouth, that the following slipped his notice. He did not take note that she was quite a bit older than he was and he did not seem to see that she walked with a limp. After a whirlwind romance that by-passed any pre-marital counseling, they got married and were off on their honeymoon.
As the man watched his new bride prepare for their first night together, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets in shock. She plucked out her glass eye and dropped it into a container on the nightstand. She pulled off her wig, revealing a bald head. She rubbed off her false eyelashes and took out her teeth. Then she unstrapped her artificial leg and took off her hearing aid. Stunned, the man hollered out, “Sing, woman sing.”
Unfortunately, two out of every three marriages today ends in divorce and too often it is because society has bought into the popular version of love which goes like this: Two young people fall in love. They experience some chills, thrills and warm and fuzzy feelings in their stomachs.
With eyes only half way open they rush to the altar and say all the right words but do it built upon the wrong foundation and before they hardly get the words, “I do” out of their mouths, they don’t anymore.
God says in His Word these sobering but strong words. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another” (1 John 3:16)… Jesus got to know us before He loved us. He made us with His very own hands and when He looked us in the eyes, He whispered to us that the key ingredient to live was to know this great love. Jesus loved us so much that He showed us the ultimate act of His love, He laid down His life in order that we could know and experience life together with Him. This is commitment based upon truth. He knew what He was getting in us, there were no false hopes. But He also knew the potential of what would happen when we would be joined together.
When a marriage is based upon this same type of commitment, it can withstand the better and for worse times. It can survive the richer or poorer moments. It will cement and bond during the times of health and even more during the days of debilitating sickness.
On those rare occasions in life, I have been given the privilege to witness such a marriage. I recently had the privilege to meet Thelma and Roy Moore, two dear people who have been joined together for almost 60 years and the love is just as strong as it was all those years ago.
Now there was no candlelight or violins but there was compassion, gentleness and kindness. And the scene of this romance wasn’t in tropics or the mountains, but in a hospital room. For 14 years, a woman no longer remembered who her husband or anyone else even was. The ugly effects of Alzheimer’s had done its work leaving behind a faithful man and his dependent wife.
But the love expressed between these two had had time to blossom and grow and mixed with a firm faith in God could form a permanent base which any weight placed upon it, although inconvenient, it was not fatal to the relationship.
Roy sat with Thelma and took care of her. He still spoke to her and it wasn’t with words of bitterness or resentment, it was with loving memories and stories of all they had experienced together. He returned the favor of serving his wife after all those years when she was able; she once did the same for him.
But there in this room love did not die; it grew even deeper and blessed all who came into its presence. And because love is faithful and remains, Roy had the privilege to witness Thelma’s exit from the body that had her trapped and lovingly let go as she entered into the arms of the Lord where she could finally be free and remember once again.
This, my family, is love and these are the stories that must be told and shared and then passed along to our young people. Love is not temporary or based upon feelings alone. It is not just infatuation that is based upon what we see, but an act of the will based upon what we know even when we don’t see it with our eyes any longer. The Bible says we know this: “And now these three remain: faith hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). My prayer for all of us is that we would experience love at its best that comes down from a God who has never given to us any less. Then, when He fills our cup to overflowing, we would let it spill on the very ones who mean so much to us. It is a time to build up so that what we labor upon remains.
Hear Pastor Rudy with a heart, every week on the radio on Sunday afternoons from 1-4 p.m. and Monday nights from 9 until Midnight on Oldies 94 WILW.
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