Last month, my husband and I celebrated five years of marriage.
Instead of spending unnecessary funds on a three course meal at a five-star restaurant right before the holidays, I asked if we could just spend a simple evening with dinner and a movie. My mother-in-law was gracious enough to watch our “little man” (who is turning 3 months old next week) while mommy and daddy got a little grownup time for a few hours. Our night together brought back so many memories of when we first met, and I loved every minute of it.
On our drive back to pick up our son, I then began to reminisce of the special time in my life when I found “the One.”
Or really when “the One” found me…
…more on that later…
With a theater degree in my back pocket, and the blue-print of my move to LA before my eyes, I most definitely wasn’t looking for my husband back then or even cared if he ever found me.
Or did I?
Because bitter disappointments were around every corner, I tried to drown out any desire of marriage with as many distractions as possible: parties, one-night stands, over-involvement in extracurricular activities and clubs, and the most of important of them all, my career plans as an actress in Los Angeles.
That all came to a screeching halt when I came face to face with my true destiny—the realization that I was a daughter of the King of Kings and He was not going to allow this prodigal to run away from Him any longer.
Broken, full of pride, and desperately lonely, He found me.
I left all of the distractions behind and began to surrender my entire life to the Lord, seeking His face and eager to truly know Him in a deeper way than I ever had before. The longer I spent time with God in times of prayer, worship, reading His Word, and attending church services, my eyes were opened to the stark reality that my life was worth more than what and who I was freely giving it away to.
The Lord told me that I was worth finding.
And for the first time in my life, I believed it.
I have to pose the question to my single friends out there:
Do you believe you are worth finding?
I think so many have been hurt and disappointed in relationships and the cares of life like I was. It wasn’t until I began to wholeheartedly focus on my relationship with Christ that I began to see that He knew way more about who was worthy to be my husband than I did.
If we don’t have a clear understanding of who Jesus is to us and how He gave His life up for us, our perception of our future mate and marriage is going to be extremely out of focus.
The apostle Paul explains to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5:22-33 exactly how marriage reflects Christ’s sacrificial love for us.
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (NKJV).
This passage of scripture paints a beautiful picture of who God believes we should wait for when it comes to entering a lasting marriage relationship. Marriage here on earth is God’s way of showing us how much Jesus loves His Church and how much The Father loves the world. The love shown between a husband and wife is a direct reflection of God’s love for them.
Are you truly accepting that love? Is it penetrating the very depths of our soul or is it just head knowledge?
Are you embracing God’s limitless, unconditional love or are you chasing after all other pleasures and empty relationships wondering if you are going to find love and happiness?
If you are running after all of the cares of this world, then I urge you to stop.
Stop, and wait.
Not alone, but with “the One.” Seeking after truly knowing “the One.”
The One who created marriage and the One who says that you are worth finding.
He knows what He’s doing.
Because “the One” created you and your “one.”
So enjoy the wait with Him.
Looking back on five wonderfully beautiful years of marriage, I’m so glad that I did.
