'Til death do us part

Today is my 27th wedding anniversary. As I write this, I am reflecting back on many years of mountain top experiences, vacations, family water fights, laughing so hard I tear up, the births of each of our nine children. Each of these experiences added a small amount of who we are as individuals, but also added to who we are as a couple. I also am looking back at the valleys in our lives.

Those times when we were at rock bottom and could not see the light at the top. One of my wife’s favorite sayings is “the preacher said ‘til death do us part … and that day may be coming sooner than you think!” She is kidding of course (I hope so anyway) but the biblical model of marriage is that of a covenant. This is not a word that is common in our modern English, but it speaks of an unbreakable agreement. This agreement is made between two parties and a third witness, the witness being God Himself. The Old Testament word translated “covenant” is berith which literally means “to cut”. An animal or animals would be cut or divided into two parts and the parties would pass between the parts sealing their agreement. The symbolism in this act is that death sealed the agreement and only death could break it.

It has only been through a right understanding of the nature of the covenant we entered into 27 years ago that our marriage has survived. We are both human beings and as such we have quirks, egos and selfish natures that threaten to derail our relationship. But through the strength of the Lord and a commitment to each other that is greater than our desire for self satisfaction we can say that our love and commitment to each other is greater today than the day we were wed. Genesis 2:24 states “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” What a blessing God has given us when He lovingly and graciously provided us with our mates to stand beside us through good times and bad.

I challenge each person who reads this to take the time to love your spouse as Christ loved the Church and make a commitment to grow your relationship with each other. Have some fun couple time away from the television, yard work etc... Join us at Calvary Baptist Church for Family Game Night at 6:00 pm the last Friday of every month and/or Family Movie Night at 6:00 pm the following Saturday.

God bless. Pastor Scott