What is it about marriage?

Dan and I recently celebrated our wedding anniversary in one of the cabins at the historic Weasku Inn near the Rogue River. We can now say that we’ve been married for years.

(2 years … but still.)

A full, sit-down breakfast was dished up every morning at the lodge, with the option of eating on the deck overlooking a gorgeous green space.

Appetizers were served late afternoons, fresh-baked cookies at 7:00pm, and a fire was lit around 8:30 each evening along with hot chocolate and ingredients for s’mores.

I’m learning Dan. And always will be. We have much in common, but we’re also two very different people.

For example, when I get a brilliant idea, which is quite often, I’m ready to run with it and figure it out as we go. And sometimes—with my full-speed-ahead approach—I hit a wall.

Meanwhile, Dan has watched 17 YouTube videos and pondered deeply, taking various and sundry notes, before he sets out. And when he reaches me at the wall, he knows how to get around it. Or over it.

You see what a great team we make.

As different as we are, this is a man whose heart is headed in the same direction as mine. Together, we want our lives to matter for all eternity. We want to do as much good as possible while we still have time on this wildly spinning planet.

In a letter to new believers in ancient Ephesus, the Apostle Paul wrote:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10

Just as God planned a unique destiny for each individual—based on interests and skills and life experiences—I believe He also designed a specific purpose for marriages, where two very different people working in tandem can effectively impact an audience that perhaps a single person might not be able to reach.

And vice versa.

Because individual people serving God, using their own exceptional, destiny-of-a-life can powerfully impact the world. If you don’t believe that, look at Mother Teresa’s example.

And speaking of Mother Teresa, she had a few thoughts on marriage:

Why did God make some of us men and others women? Because a woman’s love is one image of the love of God, and a man’s love is another image of God’s love. Both are created to love, but each in a different way. Woman and man complete each other, and together show forth God’s love more fully than either can do it alone.

I can’t help but think that when two hearts are joined with God’s heart, determined to love and serve each other … and equally determined to love and serve in their corner of the world—that right there, that’s powerful stuff.

Those of you who are single and want to be married, I pray that God will prepare you and your future spouse for this union and for the good works He’s designed for you to do as a unit of two that will become one.

For those of you who believe you are called to singlehood for this season, I pray that you feel God’s presence near as you partner with Him to make a difference in the lives of the people who cross your path.

And for those of us who are married, I pray that we will always recognize the power of team as we cherish and speak appreciation and build up our spouses with our words and our actions.

In her book, Waymaker, Ann Voskamp wrote:

Step into the mystery of marriage and the earth falls away to the strangeness of holy ground and a new, reorienting world.

Marriage is indeed a mystery—how two unique people can meld into one, how we are walking and breathing and living on holy ground as God’s Spirit is within us and all around us and permeating the home we’ve established together.

I am so very grateful for this mysterious, fun, adventure-full, learning-as-we-go partnership. Happy anniversary to my husband, best friend, and partner in crime!

Side note:

While we were in the Grants Pass area for our anniversary, we reserved a jet boat dinner cruise down the Rogue River. It was worth every minute of jetting, and surviving 360’s in the water, and the sprays that engulfed the boat, and the floaters with their massive water guns aimed at us, not to mention the fabulous dinner in an old log restaurant high above the river.