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"He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord." (NASB) 

Some of you have heard me tell this story last year, and I hope you will excuse me for telling it again, but I just can't help myself, I must tell the story again. Last Spring, I performed a ceremony for a couple that is forever etched on my heart. Though I didn't ask their age, it was obvious to me that they were in the twilight years of their lives. When Burt called me from his home in Northern California to ask me to do the ceremony, he told me that a mutual friend, a pastor referred him to me. We sat a date for the ceremony and he and his bride-to-be stopped by my office the day before they were to be married. That's when they told me their remarkable story.

When they were very young, they stood barefoot on a beach along the Central Coast of California pledging their undying, eternal love to one another. They had their own unofficial wedding ceremony I guess you might say. Because of circumstances that they didn't elaborate on, they got separated and went on with their lives. Both married. Both divorced. They lost touch with one another, but that didn't mean they didn't think about one another. For years, after dinner, Gloria would dial information all over the state of California trying to locate Burt. What she didn't know is that Burt had an unlisted number. For years-I'm not sure how many, but I think it was more than 20, Gloria called directory assistance looking for Burt. She never gave up.

An hour after Burt got his first listed number in years for a FAX machine, the phone line rang, but the FAX machine didn't pick up, so Burt picked it up, thinking it was the telephone company testing the line-it wasn't, it was Gloria. They talked for hours, rekindling their friendship. Burt promised to drive down to see Gloria in a couple of weeks when his work eased up. The next day she got a call from him, "What exit did you say I should take?" He asked. He was on the road to see her that day.

It was an honor for me to stand on the beach at Lover's Point and pronounce them husband and wife and to ask God to bless them. There was a slight mist in the air that day, for which I was grateful, because as you know real men don't cry and the mist provided an excellent cover story as to why my eyes were so moist. 

Proverbs 18:22 says, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord." (NASB) I'm sure Burt would agree with this scripture, I know I do. It is a good thing-but that doesn't mean it is an easy thing.

Especially when it is easy to allow superficial things to divert your attention from more important things. Aaron Ahuvia is a consumer psychologist and associate professor of marketing at the University of Michigan. After studying dating behavior, he said, "People are not good at understanding what they find attractive in other people. People tend to focus on common interests and superficial characteristics and not understand the importance of -- or want to talk about -- goals, values and what they want to get out of a relationship."
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