Falling in Fall

My husband and I often get those accolades that we "are in young love" and are still in the "honeymoon phase", and while we can't argue that we are deeply in love with each other as young (?) 27 year old idealists, we are also awakening to the reality of each other.  Friends for over nine years, a couple for one, lovers for now three months, I can say that I am "waking up" to the real hubby. As my husband put it, "I had fallen in love with the idea of you, and now I am falling in love with the real you!"

How easy it is to fall in love with the idea of something.  Of course its bound to happen, even if you have known the person for 40 years before marriage, there is still an 'otherness' of that person.  A distinction from who they are, to what you believe of them.  Yet, marriage is this wonderful concept of the otherness becoming one.  No longer can we cherish the image over the reality, for the distinction between the two is quickly apparent. 

So, I can say I'm still falling in love.  And what a wonderful season to fall in?  Each day and each moment I'm given the opportunity to try to understand and love the man and not the mirage.  I'm grateful that the man has much more substance and won't turn out to be a farce, nor will it be the paradise in the desert that it once appeared.  No, its a lot more gritty than that.  It involves a lot more than my imagination or selfish inclinations, it involves reality.  Our fairy tale come true.  The happily ever after has begun, the confetti has been swept up and yet love is still there-- waiting for us to choose it each day as we clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience bearing with one another and if one has a compliant against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all else put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:12-14