I kept thinking about marriage today, and what a central metaphore it is to God. It seems to be the one that he holds highest on earth. I’m not saying that one need be married to get this part of God, but I am saying marriages holding together through every thicket is a prime battle.
I think His order goes like this–our relation to Him, then our marriage, then friends, then work. I think if we move in any other order, we spoil His metaphore through which He is revealing Himself.
I see people getting lost in work, or friends, and in experience putting that before their marriage–it kills the life in what we “do”. Marriage is a noble labour–maybe the most important one we get to enter in His strength. There is little higher we can “work” on in this life. And once it is solid, there is a foundation for true friendships and work.
My father’s life work is about marriage, but first He had to get his in order, then God let his “ministry” or work flourish. That’s the order. The order matters because it is a revelation of who God is–and we need to get this revelation right as a true witness or bearing sight to who God is.
I know a man who had a great lifework going when his wife had a nervous breakdown. He stopped his work, and spent the next forty years loving on her. I think God counts that as a saintly act. And this man is one of the noblest I know!
