47. A GOD-APPROVED MARRIAGE UNION – A WORK OF GRACE

(The Courting or Engaged Series – Batch 2)

On the 15th May, 2016, as a single woman, I wrote:

When God brings two of his children together and approves of their marriage union, it is a work of GRACE.

Think about it: Despite all of your imperfections, quirks, shortcomings, flaws, weaknesses, poor attitudes and mistakes, God still provides someone that is divinely compatible with you, that is still fascinated by you, that HE has equipped and will continue to equip with a special, customized kind of patience to put up with you and a heart that HE has specially prepared to love you and only you.

If we were required to be perfect before we entered into marriage, then there wouldn’t be any marriages because we all come with flaws. Yet, God allows the person he has chosen for you to see you at your best and give God the glory humbly for it and to see you at your worst and still love and encourage you through it.

If that is not a work of GRACE, I don’t know what is.

That person knows the good, the bad and the ugly about you, that sometimes you mess up and say and do things you ought not to and that sometimes, (many times) you are less than perfect. Yet, that person still chooses to stand resolutely by your side, to become your spouse and to make you his own. There is nowhere else that he would rather be, than in your life and you in his heart and him building a future with you right in the middle of it. That person chooses to invest in your development, both as a person and from a spiritual perspective and chooses to embrace, cherish, appreciate and cover you, despite you.

If that is not a work of GRACE, then I don’t know what is.

That person sees you in your entirety and instead of being deterred by all that you are not, sees only all that you are and can be. He is excited at the prospect of you spending your life with him and of you two raising a family together and serving God together and loving and supporting and building each other.

The marriage union reminds me of Jesus and the GRACE God extended to all those who believe on his Son as Lord. No way did we deserve to call God Father. No way did we deserve to be brought into relationship with him and to partake of an eternal inheritance but yet in GRACE, God welcomed us with open and loving arms and has been pouring unmerited blessings, kindness and favour upon us ever since.

The marriage union is beautiful but it is so much more significant than many realize. When it is done within the will and approval of God, it involves a man and a woman GRACED by God, walking voluntarily to the altar and saying to the other, “I know that you are not perfect but I choose you anyway. I know that you are flawed but I still love you and want you and nobody else.”

The two exchange vows with humility and gratitude because they know, that as two undeserving individuals, it was GRACE alone that brought them together and got them that far. For, God GRACED them to love each other and to be loved by each other.

(Written on 15th May, 2016)