But it was also tender and warm. Already through the Old Testament prophet, God gave this expression of affection:

How can I give you up, O Ephraim? 
How can I hand you over, O Israel? . . . 
My heart recoils within me; 
My compassion grows warm and tender. 
(Hosea 11:8)

May God cause such tender shoots of affection to grow in the covenant-keeping soil of your life. May the fullness of Christ’s love be known and shown in the wholeness of every marriage bond.

John Piper

To Come and Capture Me

My love for you, Noël,
will drive me to pursue
with God and you
the one pure love and unity
that God’s own Son
did show in birth and death for us.
As He Cast off His glory once
to capture me,
so would I shed my freedom now
to gain
Noël.

To a Diamond on Our Engagement

Dim Shadows of a brighter heart: 
    These nervous specks of color, 
        This little world of light; 
           These minute brilliances,

Yet they can sing! 
    So sing to her, 
       You little brilliances, 
           You timid colors, 
               You twinkling cosmos.  

Sing to her! 
    Of God and Heaven, 
         Of life and Hope.  

Sing to her! 
    Of high thoughts, 
         Of heart’s capacities 
         Beyond your own crystal 
                realities.  

Sing to her! 
      Of love 
              Of being loved 
              With Love more lucid than 
                      yourself

And purely sing, 
        My little shadows,
And purely sing 
        Of me.