A Love Letter from Martyn Lloyd-Jones
This is a letter that Martyn Lloyd-Jones penned on the 18th May 1937 as he boarded a ship to come to America. The recipient was his wife to whom he was married for ten years. The letter reflects Christ’s love for His bride-to-be – the church!
My dear Bethan,
The fact that I am writing to you from here on this particular date is altogether wrong and makes me feel very odd.
As far as I can remember, this is the first time, ever, that I have written to you for your birthday! I hope that the ship’s letter-telegram that I sent you this morning arrived safely on your birthday morning. The authorities told me that there was no doubt about it. I had endless pleasure and happiness in sending it. I somehow felt I was in touch with you once more.
In this awful distance of separation, a thing like that is a great help—but oh! what a poor substitute. I cannot describe the various feelings I have experienced since I saw you last at Waterloo Station. (Well, goodness, that was only a few hours before.) And I had better not try to do so. Let me say just this much—thinking of you gives me endless happiness, and I am more certain than ever that there is no one in the world like you, nor even approaching you—not in all the world. I don’t know if I’m losing my reason … but I often feel that you’re with me and that I could almost talk to you. I have, at times, tried to imagine where you all three are and what you’re doing. I would give the whole world if you could have been with me, but there, I must be content to look forward to some four weeks today, when I shall, God-willing, be back with you again, looking into your eyes and sitting beside you. I think I shall be perfectly content just to be with you and Elizabeth and Ann, just sitting with the three of you and doing nothing else. I’ve said in my “letter-telegram” that I’m sending you all my love, and here I am, saying it once more. You shall give some bits of it to the two girls.
I’ve been thinking of tonight [her birthday night] eleven years ago, when we went together to Covent Garden and then back to Dilys’s. I thought, at that time, that I loved you, but I had to live with you for over ten years to know you properly and so to love you truly.
I know that I am deficient in many things and must, at times, disappoint you. That really grieves me, and I am trying to improve. But believe me, if you could see my heart, you would be amazed at how great my love is. I hope you know; indeed I know that you know, in spite of all my failings. I can do nothing but say again that from the human standpoint, I belong entirely to you.
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