The Man

I was sitting at a Starbucks studying tonight and I overheard an interesting conversation that made me think of life and the people that surround us daily.

The man sitting near me was chatting rather loudly about his life with a lady that he obviously had just met. Let me just add that I was not intentionally listening in because I have, yes still, so much work to do. However, the man was talking about having kids and asking the lady if she had any, to which the woman replied, “I have three girls.” The man then asked the lady a question that went something like “now guess how many kids I have?” The woman said she did not know, and the man confidently shouted “none!”

Continuing the conversation, regardless of the feelings of the woman, he began sharing his insights into having children and all that it entails. His first premise, and the one that left me thinking, began with the relationship between the man and the woman. He said that it has to be a strong marriage in order for kids to be brought into the picture. He then told the woman, “I have yet to witness any such marriages, even in my own life.”

This got me thinking.

The purpose of marriage is so that the world will know God. The picture of marriage is also a picture of our relationship with God. Unfortunately, like the observations of this man at Starbucks tonight, there are not many marriages that are putting Christ on display. This is a depressing fact. Due to the lack of discrepancy between marriages of so called “Christians” and those who do not know Christ, how is this man ever supposed to see God? Marriage must be an important topic to him because he brought it up and spoke in detail about his own failure at marriage and his own blindness to any “good” marriages at all.

This man, older as he is, has witnessed the decline of God’s wonderful plan of marriage. Sadly, he has not seen any marriages that appropriately shine the love and light of Christ. The unity and foundation of too many marriages are built on “good principles” or “anything else other than Christ,” thus they will not display God’s character as it was intended.

I am praying for that man. I am praying that all Christian marriages will put Christ on display. I am praying that my future marriage will put Christ on display as he was meant to be seen. I am praying that I will not be a hindrance to people like this man, and that maybe someday he will be shocked to see a marriage that exalts the one who is most deserving.