On Marriage

I often wake up around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. It's a bummer because then I can't get back to sleep because 1) David's breathing (okay, I'm easily distracted), 2) Or the cat is taking up 3/4 of the bed and I can't move my legs, or 3) I start thinking about my lack of work, having too much work, or the state of my filing cabinet, or a million other things. So often I'll get out of bed, eat a banana, pull a book off the bookshelf, and lie down on the couch. Then of course, the cat appears and wants to recline on my chest, making it hard to read. But the other night I managed to read a few pages from a Henri Nouwen reader titled "Seeds of Hope." Here are his thoughts on marriage, which I really like:

"Marriage is not a lifelong attraction of two individuals to each other, but a call for two people to witness together God's love. The basis of marriage is not mutual affection, or feelings, or emotions and passions that we associate with love, but a vocation, a being elected to build together a house for God in this world, to be like the two cherubs whose outstretched wings sheltered the Ark of the Covenant and created a space where Yahweh could be present. Marriage is a relationship in which a man and a woman protect and nurture the inner sanctum within and between them and witness to that by the way in which they love each other...

The real mystery of marriage is not that husband and wife love each other so much that they can find God in each other's lives, but that God loves them so much that they can discover each other more and more as living reminders of God's presence. They are brought together, indeed, as two prayerful hands extended toward God and forming in this way a home for God in this world."