True Love and Christian Marriage

This news report of a heroic husband in Joplin is a modern-day example of Christian marriage as laid out by St. Paul in Ephesians 5.

Sadly, the part of this passage that implores wives to submit to their husbands is often mocked, omitted from the wedding vows, or even deliberately censored from the reading at the wedding service.  However, what woman would not want her husband to heed the apostle's exhortation for husbands to love their wives and give up everything for them - even to the point of giving his life for his beloved?

The two go hand in hand; a godly wife submits to her husband and a godly husband places his wife's (and family's) well-being before everything else in his life.  When each is so wrapped up in love for the other, the selfishness and self-centeredness that threatens marriage (both in the form of selfish women who want to assume headship of the family and selfish men whose hobbies and toys are more important than serving his family) are overcome by mutual love for one another - as taught to us by O Henry in his 1906 short story The Gift of the Magi.  Indeed, I believe that what is missing in the modern view of marriage is love itself.

And, as St. Paul concludes: godly Christian marriage gives us a picture of our Lord Jesus - who both lays down his very life for His bride, the Church, and who submits selflessly to His Father's will - all out of love.

Let us pray for the victims of the rash of tornadoes and let us be inspired by the heroic deeds of men like Don Lansaw.  And let us reflect on the wisdom of Christian marriage and the timeliness of the Holy Scriptures.