Our Love Is of God
Isabel Alden and Maurice Kidder were students together at the University of New Hampshire. They were married in 1935, the year Maurice graduated. He attended a theological seminary in Boston and entered the Army as a chaplain when the war broke out. Separated for three years, Isabel wrote countless letters. On hearing the news of the Normandy invasion, her sense of danger was heightened, as well as her faith in the relationship between God, her husband, and herself. At that fearful time she wrote:
I have thousands of things I could say right now. I am about to take the train for Boston… for I simply feel I have to go someplace where I can worship… We shall be closer than ever, I feel sure. Do not lose courage, and do everything the best possible that you can. I know you will be a tower of strength to your men. I know too that God will be with you, not in the sense of miraculously taking care of your physical body, but taking care of your spirit so that it can withstand whatever comes upon it. I am not alarmed. I am excited. I am relieved with a terrible relief. I am afraid, but I know your fear is infinitely worse than mine. I love you to the utmost that I am capable of, and our love is of God. Be with God, and you are with me, as I am with you.335
From a dark time in our history Isabel has given us a witness to the power of a sustaining faith. She was confident in her husband’s love because she knew that that love was from God and was blessed by God. With God at the center of a relationship, we can be assured that it will remain strong through every trial. When our love for God is intertwined with our love for another person, no physical event will impact our spiritual unity with that person or with our heavenly Father.
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
—John 17:22–23