Happy Anniversary!

 

Happy Anniversary to my beloved parents, Steve and Elizabeth Van Nattan! :-)  Today, through the grace of God, they celebrate 45 years of marriage.

James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

They graduated from the same missionary boarding school (Rift Valley Academy in Kenya).  My dad was too prudent to let anyone know then that he was interested in her. :-)  It was not a good environment, in his opinion, to cultivate a lasting relationship.  [Daddy is on the right end in back and Mom is second from the right in front.]

Several years later, after he had graduated from college in California and Mom was attending college in Michigan, he put his belongings in his car and headed to Michigan to “try his fate.”  He told his friends, “If I come back, don’t ask any questions.  Just start looking for a job for me.”

Unbeknown to him, Mom told a friend of hers, “If ever comes here I’ll marry him!”  So, his “fate” was sealed before he ever arrived. :-)  Very shortly after he got there, she toted him off to two weddings in a row as her guest.  That was just the way it worked out, but he likes to joke that he decided he better take the hint or he would get fat going to all these weddings. :-)  [The above picture was actually taken after they were married, but you get the idea.]

They were married on October 21st, 1967.

Several years later their first “bundle of joy” arrived on the scene – which happened to be yours truly. :-)

Praise the Lord for bringing them through so many years together.  What a blessing to know that we all have eternity together in Christ!  In the spirit of yesterday’s post, I look forward to all of us being in our new bodies in the presence of our Lord, and to thanking Him in person for all the blessed things He’s done in and through them through their years.

John 17:24  Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

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Thanks to my Uncle Jim for making these great photos available to us.