Two imperfect people

In less than a week's time Sue and I, God-willing, will reach our 40th wedding anniversary - who said the days of miracles has passed?  Sue tells me (though I don't remember it) that before we were married I predicted that ours would be the first perfect marriage.  Well if I did say that, I was a very long way off the mark!  I have been tremendously blessed to have been married to Sue for all those years; I struggle to see how I could have survived without her unstinting love and support.  Yet at the same time I would be lying if I said that married life had always been easy - far from it.

For much of the past 40 years we have had a wonderful marriage, and I feel a deeper love for Sue now that I have ever done.  Yet there have been some times over the years when it seemed like our marriage was hanging by the thinnest of threads, when even when we tried to communicate we seemed to be talking a completely different language from each other.  Perhaps it was only the fact that we are Christians and both want God to be at the centre of our relationship that has given us the strength to survive the really difficult periods of our marriage.  After all, marriage is God's idea in the first place. We find this in the beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, a fact reinforced by Jesus himself in conversation with some religious leaders:

'Don’t you read the Scriptures?  In them it is written that at the beginning God created man and woman, and that a man should leave his father and mother, and be forever united to his wife. The two shall become one - no longer two, but one!'  Matthew 19.4-6.

But any married person understands that for a marriage to work it needs a real commitment from both parties, a recognition of one another's weaknesses and a willingness to forgive often.  I like a quote which I came across recently, "A true relationship is two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other."  Sue and I, through long experience, have learned all about each other's imperfections.  Sometimes she drives me nuts and I'm sure the feeling is mutual, but I know that when I finally persuaded Sue to marry me (after many failed attempts!) it was one of my greatest achievements.

God has so clearly had his hand on both our lives both before and during our marriage and we owe so much to him.  We have let him down on many occasions, yet he has never given up on us.  As the song goes, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end."  In his strength our marriage and family life will continue to prosper, whatever the future may hold.  To God be the glory!