Thursday thought: the sanctifying power of marriage

After writing about marriage on my anniversary, I have continued to ponder the power of that God-ordained institution.  And this week I ran across this quote:

But what if the meaning of marriage is for stretching, for no-pain-no-gain advance in maturity, rather than for primarily having one's desires met?  What if we went into a marriage with the attitude of adorning the other?  What a paradigm shift that would be.  What if we understood that we are all works in progress-- and what of we were willing for that work?  What if we counted the ways that godly marriage is a constant reenactment of Christ's relationship with the church (Ephesians 5:32)
And what if we finally realized that our brief pilgrimage on this terrestrial ball is the only chance we will ever have to love God without seeing Him, and to develop the character we will take with us into eternity?
~"Stretch marks" by Andree Seu Peterson, World Magazine, July 13, 2013, p.71

I wish I had written that.  Read the full article here.

Marriage, when it is what it was meant to be, sanctifies us as we learn to die to self and live for others.  It humbles and blesses us as another person freely dies to themselves for us.  And it shows something of the amazing, grace-filled, counter-intuitive relationship Christ has with His bride.  What a lovely thing.