“Are you all together?” the waitress asked my wife and I at the table, so she could properly calculate the checks.
“Together… for 20 years now,” I replied as I winked across the table at my wife.
“20 years?– wow,” the waitress replied, like she couldn’t believe it.
She returned with a single check, congratulating us on 20 years and then jokingly told us very flatly,
“uh, good luck on the next 20” in a way like she doubted we could make it.
I responded with a smile as I got up and lightheartedly thanked her, “We don’t need luck, all we need is looove!”
The Beatles told us “All We Need Is Love” but were they wrong, because it actually seems these days it takes a lot more than that.
Maybe the waitress’ question has been an important key all along,
“Are you all together?”
That is a great question, because it is easy to love someone you may be under the same roof with, and yet not really “be together” mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Likewise you could be half a globe away from each other and ‘be together.’
If tender care is not given each season of our life to find new ways to connect with each other, time can past and you can find you both have drifted…
Just like when you play in the ocean, and then look up to find your towel far up the beach… the towel didn’t move, you drifted.
You didn’t mean to. You just did.
We went to a wedding yesterday, that was as simple as you could get, and yet very sincere vows were made in the Presence of the Lord… what more does anyone really need?
It was beautiful, not because a lot of money was spent, but because the vows the couple were making were so heartfelt.
God was there and He blessed all who witnessed it.
We were all together in His presence.
The question is “Are ‘YOU-ALL’ together,” not “Are you ‘ALL-TOGETHER”… because there is no one who ‘has it all together’ except The Lord.
That’s why we need to invite Him into our marriage-every day after our wedding… ‘til death do us part!
Did you hear about the man who came to the pastor and said, “Preacher, you remember when you married Marry-Lou and I, we said ‘for better or for worse’… the pastor said, “why yes I do remember!”
Then the man said, “well right now Preacher, it’s just plain worse than I thought!”
No matter who we are, there will be points in our lives where things are worse than we thought… but if we face even the perfect storm TOGETHER, then whatever happens, you will at least be together!
At the end of the movie “Twister” the couple ties themselves together and then ties themselves to a well that wasn’t going anywhere.
The Tornado raged right over them and everything around them was completely destroyed, but they made it through the storm TOGETHER.
“Are You All Together?”
When you are ‘all together’ at a restaurant you commit to pay the price for whatever anyone you are with ordered.
When you are ‘all together’ in life, you commit to pay the price for whatever anyone did or didn’t do, say or didn’t say … all because you are together.
When ‘’it’s worse than ya’ thought,” don’t allow the storm to drive a wedge between you.
Carefully find inroads to get closer the more the storm rages.
Hold each other closer… and tie your hearts and minds to the promises in the Word of God…
Because HE IS FAITHFUL WHO HAS PROMISED… and you can ride out any storm when you are with God because storms don’t move HIM.
So what happens if the storm you are facing is fatal?
Even if you don’t make it through the storm, and find yourself standing before the proverbial St Peter and he points at you both and asks,
“Are you all together?”
You can wink at each other, as you smile and say, “YES, we are together and what a wild ride that was!”