Excerpt
“My prayer is that these small tastes of my imperfect affections will fan affections into flame—for God, for your spouse, and, in every fitting way, for all the treasured people in your life” (p. 14).
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About the Book
Beyond the tough love of covenant-keeping is a warmth and tenderness that can't be denied. So while John Piper's This Momentary Marriage focuses on the theological meaning of marriage, its companion volume, Velvet Steel, reveals the rich, emotional dimension.
Within these pages Piper shares a series of poems written for his wife, Noël, during the first forty-two years of their relationship, starting from the day of their engagement. In it he provides readers with a taste of one man's tender affections for his wife-poems that he hopes will fan into flame readers' affections for their own spouses and ultimately for the Maker of marriage.
First Edition 2009
Crossway Books (Wheaton, Illinois)
Table of Contents
To Come and Capture Me
To a Diamond on Our Engagement
A Whispered Yes
She Kneeled to Be His Wife
The Christian Hedonist Takes a Wife
Heartbeat the Morning of Our Marriage
Our Wedding Text: Habakkuk 3
A Promise to Be Kept
Good Promises
Our Solstice Anniversary: December 21
Love’s Prominence
Ephesian Covenant
Nature and Your Face
Love Never Felt Before
Being a Gift on Your Birthday
Feeling a Fake Kiss
Her Love, My Day and Night
Design
Away by Noël
A Tender Piece of Sovereignty
Wo Brennt die Liebe Immer Fort
Georgia Belle
“Just Tell Me When to Pack”
Pity Millionaires
Paradise Still Cursed
None But You
The Way to Joy
How Firm You Deal
Roots
The Feeble Rich
Valentine’s Grace
This Marriage: Old or Young?
Going for Gold by Noël
Go Make a Parable for Jesus’ Sake
And Ripened Full, Fed Her Beloved
A Season That Will Pass
A Crystal Tear
To Look at All Things New
Hosea and Gomer
The Gadarene in His Right Mind
Ruth
Boaz
Job
Dawn: On Hearing That I Have Cancer
That Fragile Afternoon
That Glad Afternoon When We First Met
The Servant of Our Love
Your Mirrored Treasures Shine
Trust Him Who Cuts
Leaning into You
A Mother’s Day Vision
On Becoming a Grandmother
Braiding Talitha’s Hair
Losses: On Turning Sixty
How a Grandmother Knits
Take Us to Yourself Together
But If I Die
Translations
Korean
Publisher: Revival and Reformation Press
About John Piper
John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the author of more than 50 books including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. John and his wife, Noël, have five children and twelve grandchildren.
Endorsements
“Though I do not read poetry as often as I ought and though I am not very skilled at reading and understanding it, I greatly enjoyed this little volume. I read through it on my own and then returned to some of the selections later with my wife. Piper is a gifted poet and in this little book he communicates not only what he could not communicate because of the theme of the first book, but also because of the genre. There are some things that only poetry can communicate; great affections often turn from prose to poetry and for good reason. Here Piper shares his affections in a wonderful collection of little poems. It is a perfect companion to This Momentary Marriage.” —Tim Challies, author and blogger
