To live by faith is to trust God’s guiding hand as we journey into the unknown. And perhaps the intensity of this is experienced in few places like the commitment of marriage. The very purpose of the marriage vow testifies to marriage being an act of faith.
Marriage for many has simply become a point of convenience, like a fair-weather friend. We expect, and even demand, the good times without also accepting the hard times. We look ahead and expect to see only blue skies and sunshine, or perhaps just enough clouds not to get sunburned. And we’re ready to bail as soon as we see a storm on the horizon.
But the vow we make is for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health until parted by death. It’s a sacred commitment to keep showing up and saying yes to love even when we don’t know what will be required of us on the journey ahead. There would likely be fewer marriages if we knew the exact storms we would face ahead of time. And it’s not much of a marriage when we try to write a detailed relational contract ensuring only happy times.
Like Abraham trusting God’s promises as he left his native country to journey to the land God showed him, so too is marriage leaving the familiar and our sense of control to enter the unknown. To be sure, faith is not being naïve, and we’re not denying the cost required of us. But we are learning to trust in God’s goodness for the journey and not our own understanding.
In the end, the marriage vow is a declaration of faith – our commitment to trust God and the goodness he has for our story even when we do not see the way. We live in marriage by faith, and not by sight.
Photo by Eugenia Pan’kiv on Unsplash
