Mother’s Day and Marriage

for my mama…

Every year on Mother’s Day I remember how grateful I am for my mama.  But this year I happen to be doing a lot of reading about marriage and I have to say that what I am most grateful for about my mom today is her undying commitment to my daddy.

Recently I reread this quote from an old book by Walter Wangerin Jr. (As For Me and My House) on marriage about the marriage promise:

Here is a marvelous work, performed by those who are made in the image of God–for we create, in this promise, a new thing, a changeless stability in an ever-changing world.  We do the thing that God does, establishing a covenant with another human being: we ask faith in our faithfulness to that covenant.  We transfigure the relationship thereafter, transfiguring ourselves, for we shape our behaviors by that covenant.  We have called forth a spiritual house in which each of us may dwell securely.  Whether we know it or not, is a divine thing we do, and it is holy.

My parents have called forth a spiritual house in which many have dwelt securely.

And in the four decades of their being transfigured by this covenant, they have built a haven from which Anna, Peter and I started our own marriage journeys.  Our home was not perfect, but it was a stability in an ever-changing world.

This year more than ever, I believe that it is out of this place of sacred promise that my mother has set before me that I am (with Taido) calling forth my own secure house.

It is a divine thing we do.

Happy Mother’s Day!