All Things Beautiful #11 – Ken Williams

Different But the Same:

Some people search for compatible mates via AI digital or counseling services. One couple we know is happy they did this. O.K. but was God the original “match maker”? Did he create perfectly matched humans when he made the first couple into one flesh? The first created man responded with heartfelt gratitude when God gave him the first created woman; she was flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, his helper, comparable to him. In my opinion this was due only to the fact that she was created in God’s image, like him (Gen. 2:23-25 OSB).

Nancy Jo and I hold this opinion after 54 years of marriage between two who are different but the same.

My Nancy Jo’s traceable heritage began in the late 18th or early 19th centuries. Her maiden name, Strommen, became the family surname that describes the Valdres region of Norway, farmland between two rivers (rushing water). Her great, great, great-grandfather, Andreas, made a farm from which one of his sons, Torgrim, migrated to the United States, and occupied farmland in part of the Northwest Territory, today’s southern Wisconsin. The neighbors surrounded Adam’s Lutheran church. Her parents loved and cared for her brother and her. They learned a strong work ethic and concern for neighbors within their community.

My parents cared for me but were unhappy with each other; I was twelve when mom divorced dad. We lived in East Los Angeles, moved frequently within L.A. County, no church, part of SoCal culture, and were marginally aware of our heritage. The U.S. Navy and a legalistic church disciplined me, where I became an obedient, socially acceptable young man.

Nancy Jo and I fell in love at a church single’s dance in Des Moines, Iowa. We married a year later.

Different yes! The same?

On our 54th anniversary I wrote a poem inside Nancy Jo’s anniversary card and gave it to her at our favorite restaurant, the Rohrbach Brew Pub.

It was Spring, 1971 I could not understand that moment, it remains a beautiful mystery, although, its significance is so obvious, even to one so dull as I.

“Could I have this dance?” You appeared in my arms at a single’s dance. Life shining through your eyes and smile, your spirit! Waltzing, twirling, swaying, to the music.

You were the inspiration for my request, the radiant sunrise, sky-blue-pink, in my arms, how can this be? The sudden answer to my quest, the beginning of life worth living.

Spring blossomed, warmed by Summer,

flowed slowly into Fall, I asked for your hand, you gave me both!

Joy, Anticipation, Life! Day before Valentines Day, February 13, 1972, a multitude of family members and friends, witnessed the mysterious union, two souls, so different, and yet the same.

God smiled. He molded this mystery in his hands. 54 years! Over half a century! Yet brief, as brief as a hypnotic waltz. God’s music is still playing, still it’s all too easy to be distracted. Over the years I stepped on your toes. I “led” you into other couples, recovered and then…and then…

We hear the music, serenity flows, we two who are so different, remember… we remember we are one flesh, the Composer’s gift, enchanted by his music.

Spring 1971. If I had known then, what I know now,

I would have run to you and requested, “Could I have this dance? For the rest of my life?”

We are fellow humans, following Jesus’ lead, participating with him in the Triune God’s Way of giving and receiving Love. In Jesus, “…we two who are so different are the same…”

Stay tuned for “All Things Beautiful” – 12 finale

The Marriage of the Lamb

Ken and Nancy Williams served for some 25 years in pastoral ministry, and then almost another 20 years serving and mentoring other pastors.  With the heart of a pastor Ken continues to write and blog from upstate New York where he and Nancy live close to their grandchildren.