Today is also our 2nd anniversary. Though it's not an ideal day to celebrate, it's still worth doing so.
2 years ago, at almost this exact time, I was walking down the isle to the love of my life. As I reflect on that day, spent with close friends and family, my heart bursts with thankfulness to God who has given me a husband who I am so unworthy of. I do not deserve to be loved by someone who looks through my faults, who doesn't care what I look like in the mornings, who doesn't care when the house isn't clean. Likewise, I look through Stephen's faults, I laugh at his antics when others might be annoyed, I don't care that he leaves a mess where ever he goes. Stephen loves me for who I am and I love him for who he is.
This is a beautifully perfect example of Christ's love for us - hence marriage is an example of Christ's love for the church - His redeemed people.
Christ was the ultimate sacrifice for us - dying on the cross for our sins. Though not anywhere close to the extent of this, marriage is a picture of sacrifice. As wives, we sacrifice our lives to provide a loving home for our husbands, and when the time comes, our children. Husbands sacrifice their lives through a job to provide for the family. We strive to make small, sacrificial choices for each other to show our love.
This morning I was up early with a bad cold. Stephen was up with me making sure I was comfortable. He sacrificed almost half his lunch break to stop at the store and get me medicine. Before he left to go back to to work he made sure I had everything I needed. This is a perfect example of sacrificial love.
In the end, marriage is a testimony - a testimony of Christ's covenant love for His people.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in Letters and Papers from Prison,
“Marriage is more than your love for each other.
It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God's holy ordinance,
through which He wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of
time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in
marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God
causes to come and to pass away to His glory, and calls into His
kingdom. In your love, you see only the heaven of your own happiness,
but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsability towards the
world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but
marriage is more than something personal - it is a status, an office.
Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the
king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that
joins you together in the sight of God and man.”
And, a few pages later says this:
“God makes your marriage indissoluble, and protects it from every danger
that may threaten it from within and without; he will be the guarantor
of its indissolubility. It is a blessed thing to know that no power on
earth, no temptation, no human frailty can dissolve what God holds
together; indeed, anyone who knows that may say confidently: What God
has joined together, can no man put asunder. Free from all the anxiety
that is always a characteristic of love, you can now say to each other
with complete and confident assurance: We can never lose each other now;
by the will of God we belong to each other till death.”
I love Stephen. I know he loves me. I also know that without a doubt we will spend the rest of our lives together.
I have no idea how long "the rest of our lives" is. It could be a day. It could be 50 years. No matter the length, I pray that our marriage will exalt Christ and all that He has done for us. I pray that through our marriage, unsaved friends and family will see Christ and enter into a saving relationship with Him.
Here's to the rest of our lives, my love. :)
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