Hello, my name is Matt Whitman, and I am married.

I've just been married the one time. I'm just the one lady. It's Camilla. We met in college on our first day of class in honors philosophy.

It was pretty great. I liked her right away and it took a while to get her on board with the plan,

but eventually she's like, you seem okay too. And then later after that, I was like,

I love you and I think we should get married. And I'd be really happy if you went along with that plan. And she was like, I would like to do that. And then we did a whole ceremony thing. Her dad was there. My dad was there. You know, our whole family. Our dads are both pastors. So they did the wedding together. It was kind of lovely. I wore a kilt. We got married at the camp that we worked at

together. Our was kind of lovely. I wore a kilt. We got married at the camp that we worked at together, our first summer that we were dating.

It was all just very, very lovely. And you know, we used to say, I love you a whole lot back then.

And then we've also said, I love you a whole lot since then, because of how in love we are.

And we had kids along the way.

We have three kids. That was pretty cool. And we continue to say, I love you through the era of being parents to our kids. And, you know, we had all the ups and downs, work and life and money and

being a young couple and all of that stuff. We said, I love you a lot through all of that as well. So it's kind of interesting. When you look back on the whole thing, you're like, well, we kind of confessed the same thing to each other pretty much all the way through it. You know, we got to know each other for a while, but then it was like, I love you, and I love you too. And then we just keep saying it to each other over and over and over again. But what's interesting is there are some real benchmarks in the I love you confession. One of the big ones is doing that wedding. I mean, that's not just like, I love you. That's in front God and everybody, everybody who got us here. I love you. I'm committed to you. Cool, I love you. That's in front of God and everybody, everybody who got us here.

I love you. I'm committed to you. Cool. I love you. I'm committed to you, too. And then there were bagpipes and stuff. It all made sense if you were there. And then, you know, the I love you is along the way. And then boom, like, here's a kid. and it's, you know, it's kind of slimy and everything,

but also she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

And, well, here's a kid, and it's, you know, it's kind of slimy and everything, but also she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, and, well, here we both are together. I don't really know how this works, but I love you, and I'm so proud of you, and I'm so glad we're married, and I'm so glad to meet you, little girl. I don't know, it's still just the same words. I love you, but that confession means something more or something different,

something richer maybe in that moment, same thing with each of the kids along the way, same thing

with a bunch of the ups and downs along the way, and it feels like it means something more robust

and more complete, you know, even today than it did a year ago or two years ago.

You get what I'm driving at, right? It's the same words, but the comprehension of what those

words mean is enhanced by the time we've spent together. It's enhanced by the stuff that we've

seen together and the war stories and everything else.

Well, likewise, there's this confession of Jesus that happens in John 1, really in the very early going of the story of Jesus.

And it comes from Nathaniel, not just Nathaniel.

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