Streams

When my sister-in-law got married a little over a year ago, I was honored to say a few words at the reception as the matron of honor. I chose to read a verse from Samuel Rutherford’s hymn The Sands of Time Are Sinking as it has shaped my view of marriage possibly more than anything else. The verse reads:

“O Christ, He is the fountain,
the deep, sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I’ve tasted;
more deep I’ll drink above:
there to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand,
and glory, glory dwelleth
in Emmanuel’s land.”

While not explicitly about marriage, I think it holds a lot of wisdom that can be applied to marriage. We know from Scripture that marriage is one of God’s good gifts to us, meant to be enjoyed. It is, as Rutherford wrote, one of the “streams on earth” we taste of God’s kindness. Even unbelievers acknowledge the goodness and sweetness of the marriage union.

My husband is one of God’s sweetest gifts to me. Not a day has gone by since we said our vows that he has not demonstrated, in one way or another, his love for me. I taste the Father’s goodness in card games after dinner, walks at sunset, long nights awake with a teething baby, drives to and from church, Saturday morning pancake breakfasts, and anniversary cards on my dresser. I often think to myself, what can be better than this? It is then that Rutherford’s words come to mind and point my gaze upward.

“The streams on earth I’ve tasted;
more deep I’ll drink above.”

When I leave this earthly life, and the marriage that has made it so wonderful, I will not be exchanging it for something lesser, but something far greater. My marriage is a stream of God’s kindness in my life. It is meant for me to taste and enjoy, to sample some of the ocean from which it comes. It is an extension of God’s goodness to me, not a competition with it. If God was so good to give this gift here in a fallen world, how much better will the untainted life of heaven be?

I am grateful for my marriage and the way it sweetens my life. I am grateful for the God who gave it and the eternity with Him that awaits me.

Praise God from whom all blessings, including marriage, flow.