I Take Joy…. In Marriage

Why everybody liked him was what puzzled Jo, at first. He was neither rich nor great, young nor handsome, in no respect what is called fascinating, imposing, or brilliant, and yet he was as attractive as a genial fire, and people seemed to gather about him as naturally as about a warm hearth. He was poor, yet always appeared to be giving something away; a stranger, yet everyone was his friend; no longer young, but as happy-hearted as a boy; plain and peculiar, yet his face looked beautiful to many, and his oddities were freely forgiven for his sake.

Jo often watched him, trying to discover the charm, and at last decided that it was benevolence which worked the miracle. If he had any sorrow, `it sat with its head under its wing', and he turned only his sunny side to the world. There were lines upon his forehead, but Time seemed to have touched him gently, remembering how kind he was to others. The pleasant curves about his mouth were the memorials of many friendly words and cheery laughs, his eyes were never cold or hard, and his big hand had a warm, strong grasp that was more expressive than words.

His very clothes seemed to partake of the hospitable nature of the wearer. They looked as if they were at ease, and liked to make him comfortable. His capacious waistcoat was suggestive of a large heart underneath. His rusty coat had a social air, and the baggy pockets plainly proved that little hands often went in empty and came out full. His very boots were benevolent, and his collars never stiff and raspy like other people's.

"That's it!" said Jo to herself, when she at length discovered that genuine good will toward one's fellow men could beautify and dignify even a stout German teacher, who shoveled in his dinner, darned his own socks, and was burdened with the name of Bhaer.

“Good Wives”  Louisa May Alcott.

My word for 2010 is joy.  My mandate, to take joy in all the facets and twists and turns and curves and corners and plains of this existence called my life.   Ever since the dawn of the New Year, possibly in anticipation of Valentines Day,  I have been in a state of contemplation about this mystery called marriage.  This covenant of commitment, this relationship of romance.  I have been seeking to understand and nurture this miracle of love and I have been delighted and blessed through the process.  I have been reading Good Wives with the girls (so endearing), I’ve been listening to a sermon series on the Song of Solomon (so enlightening!), re-reading a series of romance building books (so inspiring) that we received as a wedding gift, and talk, talk, talking with my husband (so heart warming) about taking our marriage higher and deeper.  I have not been disappointed. 

There are many little things that God has been teaching me about love and I am enjoying the lesson.  I have always been attracted to my husband (obviously) and I find so many things about him wonderful and mysterious and beautiful (in the most masculine sense of the word of course) but let’s face it.  After fourteen years of marriage, things can get familiar and “comfortable” and the raging fire that once flushed your face and set your flesh to burning can become more of a comfortable , steady heat radiating faithfully from a bed of embers. 

I’ve been stoking the fire.  Awakening my senses once again to this miraculous gift of romance and covenantal love.  Staring at my husband the way I once did, and allowing myself to marvel in all the beauty and wonder that is HIM.  Like Jo, in the excerpt above, I’m taking more time to admire him, delight in him, revel in the gift of him.  And blossoming in the process.

 

 

“The fig tree ripens its figs and the vines are in blossom; they send forth fragrance.  Arise my love, my beautiful one, and come away with me.”  Song of Songs 2:13