Yesterday, Robert Traphagen turned eighty-nine years old, and you can see him still holding hands with the woman he married sixty-five years ago. "Bob" and his wife, Barbara, would not take credit for their longevity of life and marriage. They would claim that both came from the gracious throne of the God who created them.
Life-long love is not cheap. Marriages do not last long by accident, but by committed devotion to one another. Bob and Barbara faced many of life's usual joys and difficulties and some events more intense and painful than usual. They braved twenty years of Bob's service in the United States Air Force. They moved seven times. They raised two children and endured the death of one child when he was four months old. Joys and difficulties that can tear marriages apart may otherwise reinforce them, by the grace of God. Bob and Barbara found a way to draw closer through their many years of joys and difficulties.
As a young married woman myself, I marvel at this couple. I felt deeply honored to take their sixty-five year anniversary pictures. But I do not call them clients, nor do I call them "Bob" and "Barbara." I have the pleasure of calling them "Papa and Grandmama."
I have watched their marriage, not just during a one-hour photoshoot, but throughout my whole life. I hope one day I can cook pizza like Papa and read bedtime stories as well as Grandmama. Maybe one day I will even learn how to beat them in dice games.
But most of all, I want to imitate their passion for their Lord. Their tenderness and passion toward the Triune God revealed in the Bible shine in their eyes when they talk about Him and His faithfulness over the years. They know Who has held their hands over the years.
And they would say that He is the reason they are
still holding hands.
