April 04, 2013
At the Well
In today’s society it’s not unusual to see a hyphenated name when a
woman keeps her maiden name, or a long established first marriage name may be
kept when there is second marriage. In a recent obituary the lengthy hyphenated
surname of 90 year-old Sally was the result of four marriage and divorce
situations. The family is quoted, “She
never gave up on finding love.” I thought of the Samaritan woman who Jesus
encountered at Jacob’s Well. Jesus revealed to her that he was aware of her five
previous husbands, as well as her current in live-in relationship. Without any
apparent discomfort, hesitation or explanation, the woman simply said, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.”
(John 4:19 NIV) I love the fact that this woman, rather than going home in
embarrassment, went back into town and shared her Jesus experience with her
community. “Come, see a man who told me
everything I ever did”…and knows I haven’t given up on finding love.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I’m not sure how I would feel as a husband of a woman retaining the name of a previous husband, or two or three. I’ve always been thankful that my bride took my name. It’s a point of honor to me, on one hand. On the other hand, it documents my responsibility to her proper care and feeding, and it evidences her full belief that she has found love.
-----But then, finding love is only a manner of speech. If we do not quickly strike upon the real matter of marriage, we will soon be looking for love again. Someone is found to love and be loved by, for sure. But beyond that, love is not found. It is made. In fact, I postulate that if love is not properly made before it is found, it will not be found at all. And I do rather mean to imply that we do not at all “find” love. From our making it we find a situation developed by it.
-----For real love made is life properly lived. Lives are lived by signposts and guidelines and rules of thumb and habits all together steering our actions and responses through courses of events and people and things into something good and beneficial. Love is discernment of signs and attraction to guidelines generating useful rules of thumb and habits ever in search for ways to create joy and happiness and provision into the being of the one you love. That’s good and beneficial.
-----Then life becomes interesting when we remember our instructions to love everyone, including enemies and self. It is a twist that “true love” connotes romance worthy of grasping for life. But then everything else is twisted around by this life’s mirages, too. Truth and love are actually inseparable. If one’s ambitions do not seek the truths of a situation, the only other thing they could be seeking is someone’s distortion. And distortion is a part of destruction. It ends where perfection begins. We were not raised into these new lives for imperfection. Our entire beings are aimed towards perfection because everything other than perfection has a horrible end. And perfection is merely being in precise accordance with truth. It is not had now because now is very warped. So, even though our love is warped by our own imperfections, it is yet acceptable by our ambition to aim it at the truth. We are to love everyone with true love.
-----But even truth observes the limits of a warped world. My love will feed my neighbor. But it won’t feed him everything I have for as long as I have to get stuff. It will feed him till the truth of his need from me has been satisfied, though not ignoring that one day the truth of such need might consume my entire life in a moment (Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13.)
-----This point distinguishes the love I have for my bride from my love for all others. My love for her must kill me, but a piece at a time. It breaks off and discards what of myself does not fit with her so I can live with her (though I fudge a bit and store some in the back room for a possible time when she could acquire a fit for it.) My romance for her is the sculpting of who I’m becoming to be what is most joyful and best providing for her possible.
-----Now we’ve arrived at the holiness of matrimony. Love between a man and a woman is metaphorical of the love between God and man. He died for man so He could be the life of man. So also should a man love his wife. (A piece at a time, though ladies.)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment