Long Roads, Sweet Destinations

Faith, through the commitment of hard work, is the factor carrying improbable relationships through the years, not without the occasional bumble, to the durability of marital legend.

It’s a legacy for the entire family.

It is struggle that often typifies such relationships, early on. The deeper and harder the struggle—provided partners are resiliently committed, and forgiveness is made live and real along the way—the more the blessings of endurance can be tethered and appreciated between the two.

The Blessedness of Mutual Work

There is no better affirmation of the commitment between a married couple than the preparedness to work; most poignantly when there is much work to be done.

Their approach is realistically buoyant, noting the darkness that attains the moment and, equally, not being pinned down by it. There’s a lot of maturity in that.

Work is a paradoxical thing. It’s difficult in the act, but the easiest thing from the aspect of hindsight. Work, hence, involves faith. We work for reasons that are not always clear in our view. We work for a hope we need to believe in. And we believe in our partners; that’s what marriage is all about.

Better, infinitely, than work, however, is the mutuality of two people entwined in purpose of oneness.

That’s where the blessedness of mutual work resides; the faith of two blended into the commitment of one. Such marital single-mindedness will not be broken.

Enjoying the Destined Celebration Together

It’s always such a great pity when significantly long-term marriages—in the form of 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 years—end before due celebration. Whether it is death or some other form of heartbreak matters little; partners party to those marriages both miss out. There is the legacy of memory and that alone can be celebrated. But the sense of real celebration is tragically cut short.

Married couples who reach milestones of celebration should spare a thought for those not so fortunate; it is further testament to the glowing miracle of faithfulness.

Celebrating significant milestones, particularly in the context of the chiding tumults that have forged forgiving marital characters along the way, seems perfectly inevitable; reminiscent of sweet victories taken from the jaws of many near defeats.

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God is faithful in this: when couples battle through, with vision of the cherished destination ever ahead and in view, defiantly together in constancy, they will reach their goal and the work will be worth it. Heavenly sweet is that destination.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.