Do It Again!

Do It Again!

My friends Barney and Karen married one another again on their forty-fifth wedding anniversary—for the eleventh or twelfth time. (Barney can’t remember exactly.) Barney keeps surprising Karen by renewing the commitment they made when they were two kids fresh out of college with their whole lives ahead of them. They did a good thing back then. Through ups and downs, they can see now that they chose well. So they just keep choosing to do it again.

For this particular hot June afternoon, Barney had invited family and a few friends down to their lake house and happened to include their minister among those gathered. After lunch we all headed down to the water to witness their nuptials. Karen half suspected. She even asked Barney early that morning if they were getting married again, and he said no. I’m not sure how that full disclosure thing works in marriage, but I think in this case it was probably okay not to give up the plan in advance.

The words my friends spoke that Sunday were very similar to the ones they vowed the first time. They promised to love, honor, and cherish one another “until death do us part.” And they’ll very likely promise again before that time comes—because delight almost begs repetition. Children know this. Some grown-ups do too. And when you love a God whose mercies are new every morning, sometimes the longing to “do it again” just can’t be ignored. “It is possible,” writes G. K. Chesterton, “that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.”^a

Have you thanked God for his goodness today? Do it again. Told someone you love them? Do it again. Have you offered mercy, sung praises, given liberally, or sought forgiveness? Then by all means, do it again! The best things never get old, and our Father is forever making all things—even familiar things—brand new.

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

1 Corinthians 13:4, MSG

^a G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (Chicago: Moody, 2009), 92.