One Sunday when I was in college, I went with a friend to the chapel on campus for mass. I was stressed out from school and from relationship problems, and I told the Lord that all I really wanted to be was a wife and a mother. Then, for the first time ever, I heard that internal voice of the Lord say, "You will."
I have always cherished the memory of that Sunday morning, especially this morning on the 28th anniversary of the day Dean and I received the sacrament of marriage and were joined by God as one. I know beyond all doubt that God sent me Dean. He wasn't exactly what I had expected and he certainly wasn't in a place that I had expected, but he was and has always been exactly what I needed in a partner.
My best friend, Keith, read this poem on marriage by Kahil Gibran at our wedding ceremony: http://leb.net/~mira/works/prophet/prophet3.html . The poet talks about how to be together bonded by God as a couple but also how to not to be so "near together" as "the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow." That's the balance that is hard to find as a couple. To be together and put family second only behind God but not to lose who are as an individual. This morning, as I look back, I know that sometimes along the way we've struggled and there were times when I felt like I was losing me. That's not what God wants for us when he unites us as one. Marriage is similar to salvation; you have to give up your life only to discover that after doing so, you find it! Dean and I know each other's strengths and weaknesses and have come to appreciate the strengths and laugh at the weaknesses because where one is weak, the other is strong. God already knew that; it just took us a while to get there! And being there is oh so wonderful.
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