Thursday is Valentine’s Day and Andy and I will celebrate with a date at the gym (high school gym, that is) and probably a crock pot meal at home with the kids after the game. We go all out, as you can tell. Yesterday we did spend some time together, just the two of us, when we made an impromptu trip out of town for the afternoon. He was driving a little over the speed limit, I was chatting ninety miles a minute and then we heard it–the latest song (there’s been many over the years) that Andy has dedicated to me. It’s “Beautiful Crazy” by Luke Combs.

I learned a long time ago and finally succumbed to the fact that country songs were good for our marriage. Minus the ones about cheatin and tastin Tequila and drownin memories with Whiskey and a host of other lyrics that play like a broken record over and over in my head. Though this newest song doesn’t fit me perfectly (I start my day with coffee and Jesus and don’t end my day with wine. . . oh, and I can’t dance), I think it hit the nail on the head with the word “crazy.”

And Andy knew that. That’s why he picked it! I knew it as well. And I had no logical defense to offer up the first time he played it for me. Just a good laugh, a smile and a heart full of gratitude that my husband would love me how he does, despite my off-the-deep-end moments, my continuous ups and downs, and the little habits that should annoy him but more often than not, just make him love me even more.

He says I’m beautiful and we both say I’m crazy. The truth is, though, that our life together, our marriage, is both. Beautiful crazy. And, hard. There have been seasons of pain and heartache, times when we’ve withdrawn from one another and times when we’ve clung just the same. But I can tell you this—there’s not a song yet written that I could pick that could accurately describe the one thing that has never faltered through it all—and that is my husband’s steadfast love and faithfulness to me. My crazy is beautiful to him and that is probably something I will never fully understand.

Because it’s supernatural. He has recounted many times how when God put this love, this trust and this beyond confirmation that I would be his forever in his heart, it was a sealed deal. God drew Him to me, and me to him, and has sustained us ever since. If you knew our entire story, you’d be able to look at us now and agree—there was a divine table of contents complete with details written in chapter after chapter in a book called, Andy and Jamie’s (Plus Five) Story.

As Combs sings, “beautiful, crazy, she can’t help but amaze me,” I think we both recognize that the real amazement is what the Lord has done in our lives. When we look around and see marriages struggling, husbands having a difficult time loving faithfully and wives working through deep issues (and vice versa), because of the good things God has done for us, we actually see opportunities for Him to become the author, the perfecter, and the finisher of those relationships, too. We know first-hand that He can give what is needed, secure what might be unsteady, and continue to write new chapters with good endings. Not just good endings, amazing endings.

God’s going to finish our story—a story about a messed up, cleaned up, beaten and bruised up, yet held up marriage that has all been the result of His providential hand. I look forward to what is to come. Just as I look forward to the next country song that is hand-picked by my husband and then dedicated to me. It will be something I cherish and something to remind us both of our love and commitment to each other, give or take a few lyrics.

“Beautiful Crazy” by Luke Combs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6g2tKgF9HQ