See Things as God Sees Them

See Things as God Sees Them

“Do you have eyes but fail to see?” - Mark 8:18

Eyes—we use them to scan the room, to focus so intently on someone that everything else begins to blur.

Our eyes tell us stories. They invite people into our lives. Your eyes were an important instrument in bringing you to marriage.

In his book The Mystery of Marriage, Mike Mason says:
Marriage is, before it is anything else, an act of contemplation. It is a divine pondering, an exercise in amazement.

This is evident from the very start, from the moment a man and a woman first lay eyes on one another and realize they are in love.

The whole thing begins with a wondrous looking, a helpless staring, an irresistible compulsion simply to behold.

For suddenly there is so much to see! So much is revealed when two people dare to stand in the radiance of one another’s love.

And so there is a divine paralysis of adoration; everything else stops, or at least fades into the background, and love itself takes center stage.

Marital vows today seem to have less meaning and commitment to the marrying couple than they did a generation ago.

A vow is supposed to be binding regardless of personal need fulfillment, lack of love, the attraction of another or incapacitating illness.

Couples need to commit to a fidelity without any qualifications, limitations or restrictions. For some, making a serious marital vow is difficult, for they have little experience in being faithful to anything or anyone and are not aware of the high cost. Without the promise of fidelity, there can be no trust.

When couples marry they are called to be faithful; but to what? We are called to faithfulness in all areas of our lives:

to marriage itself as a calling; to the friendship phase of the marital relationship so that each comes to see the other as his or her best friend; to our partner as a child of God, a joint heir with us.

We are admonished to treat each other as such. Part of our calling in life is to minister to others in the name of Jesus Christ, and this means our partners as well.

Remember the phrase in the old wedding ceremony, which says: “I plight thee my troth”? The word “troth” is an old English term that carries with it the pledge to be true, faithful, loyal and honest.

It also involves trust, reliability and integrity. Troth carries with it the possibility of mutual intimacy, deep communication, the ability to trust and depend upon each other.

To “plight thee my troth” means that I will actively work to include all these characteristics in my marital relationship.