All About That Gaze

Last Friday, Daddy and I went to the Manure Bowl. It's a football game played between members of the Green, Hawthorne and Storey families on the Friday after Thanksgiving. They have been playing the game for the last 50 years in the same location. And they have upwards of 60 people at the event. They don't get together for Thanksgiving or Christmas... nope, just the Manure Bowl. It is a precious tradition this family has done. Daddy was covering the event for a front page story for the newspaper. We learned about it because we know several members of the family since they attend our church, including Dot Hawthorne and her daughter, Blair. It is at Dot's "Ponderosa" home that the game is played. So while Daddy was working, I was visiting with family members. After a yummy chili lunch, I noticed a bunch of family pictures on the wall in the living room.
You know how I love pictures, so I went over to look closer at them. Blair came over and told me who everyone was in the pictures, many of whom were at the game. But one picture in particular caught my eye. It was a family photo of Dot, her late husband John, and their four children. It looked like one of those portraits for a church directory. What captured my heart was the expression on John's face. Everyone was looking forward and smiling except for him. He was looking at his wife, Dot, with the most precious smile. I wondered if after they got the copy of that photo if everyone was all "Dad - you weren't even looking at the camera!" but honestly, because he didn't it gives that photo a sweet presence that I would have never noticed before. You can tell by looking at this man how much he loves his wife. Looking at the camera and smiling, anyone can do that, but looking as he did at his wife and smiling, that is a priceless, treasured moment.

You can tell by the way people look at each other and their body language how they feel about someone. You can tell if people are in love by the looks they share. It's like they've captured each other by their eyes. It's sweet and beautiful to see. Kinda like the picture I shot of the two of you at the beach around your birthday when you were walking hand in hand and didn't know I was taking it. Or the looks on your faces as I shot your engagement from a distance. The smiles and eyes speak volumes.  King Solomon wrote of his bride in the Song of Solomon 4:9 "You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart with a glance of your eyes." 

It is our prayer that you will have that same look in your eyes every time you look at each other. We pray that love you feel now, at the beginning of your relationship, will grow exponentially every single day. So that years from now, when you get a family portrait, that you will have to be told, "Look here at the camera please!" because you're so busy gazing at each other. Or maybe the photographer will realize as you're looking at each other, that that's the picture he should take, so that you will have the same priceless moment Dot has hanging on your wall one day.

Discussion: Tell each other how you feel about the other? Do you see the love you have in each other's eyes?

Prayer: Father, may our smiles reflect the love we have for each other always. Help us to remember the early feelings and grow that love every day, closer and closer to each other as we grow closer to you. In Jesus, Amen.