One whole year...

My wife and I celebrated our one year anniversiary yesterday. Wow. I am blessed beyond words. It is amazing how God can use people (like my wife) and situations (like our marriage-- I realize that "situation" is a bad word to use for marriage-- "sacred covenant" is a little more accurate, but you get my drift) to conform us to the likeness of His Son and bring glory to Himself. I've been listening to Piper's sermons on marriage lately (subscribe to His podcast by the way) and his sermons on marriage are basically filled with the same thing he says everywhere else (which, in all honesty, is the only thing worth saying)-- that Christ is to be exalted, that we are to glory in Him, that we are to exalt Him and in Him, that we are to surrender every ounce of our being to His purpose and pleasure. Piper made a simple comment in a sermon that has resonated in my heart the past few weeks: marriage was created to symbolize and glorify Christ and the church. Now, I think I've heard that somewhere before (see Ephesians 5), but it just hit me in a new way these last few weeks. Now, if my marriage is supposed to symbolize Christ and the church, which one does that make me? Hear my heart on this, I'm not positing myself as a Christ-figure of course, but that it a pretty serious role, don't you think? That means I should be the pursuer, the lover, the defender, the protector-- and, most importantly, my wife should see Jesus in the way I treat her. A year in the books...and many more ahead (deo volente) with a high calling to respond to.