Christ and Marriage

I have many friends in the blogosphere whom I admire greatly. I draw inspiration and creativity from them on a consistent basis. Whenever I feel empty, truly blank, I click on my Google Reader list and start reading my favorite blogs. Sometimes their writing appeals to my intellect, but more often their posts affect me spiritually and emotionally. And that is exactly what I found tonight when visiting my friend Anne's blog, Imprisoned in My Bones: Releasing My Inner Jeremiah. Today she wrote about the connection between Christ and marriage. She starts the post with this amazing quotation:

"I love to think of the cross as Jesus' marriage bed where he laid himself down, body, soul, mind and heart, thus giving himself completely to his spouse, which is all of us, reborn in baptism. Just as Eve comes forth from the side of Adam as he sleeps, so, too, the church is born from the wounded side of the crucified Christ.

Every wife and husband that marry in Christ are committed to loving each other sacrificially, unselfishly, completely, exclusively, permanently, because that is how God loves all of us through Jesus."

Fr. Don Hying, Rector
St. Francis de Sales Seminary, Milwaukee

I don't like thinking about my marriage being as pain-inducing as Christ's crucifixion, but the point here is the sacrificial love of marriage, the willingness to live for the other person. Keith and I have always discussed how the key word in marriage is unselfishness. So go read Anne's complete post here: The Cross of Marriage -- I'm sure that you will enjoy it and be inspired by it as much as I was tonight.