The Perfect Marriage

Mike and I are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary and this guy deserves a medal for putting up with me for so long.

We met when I was only 17. We fell in love immediately and we were married six months later -- we had to wait until I graduated from high school and I turned 18. He was a first-year student at Purdue University and I cried when he took me home after our first date because he had to go back to school the next day. Those tears led to dropping out of college, a short engagement, and living in a mobile home until we could afford a house.

This is me (the skinny girl with the big glasses) with this guy (with lots of hair) I barely knew and would soon marry.

High School Prom 1981

We knew nothing about marriage and definitely knew nothing about what God thought about marriage. We were just two teenagers in love and starting a life together. 

I love the way God gives us a biblical picture of marriage through His word. Jesus refers to believers as “the bride of Christ” and He tells us how marriage should be a reflection of His relationship with His church (with believers). 

As we learn from Ephesians 5:22-33

• Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. A wife is to submit to her husband (the head of the wife) as the church is to submit to the Lord (the head of the church).
• Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. He's talking about a sacrificial love like the love Christ has for us. Jesus loved us enough to die on a cross for us, to die for His bride (His church).  
• A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. In the same way, Jesus is joined to believers (those who have a relationship with Him).  When we accept Jesus as Lord, we are united with Him and become part of His church (the bride of Christ). 
• Christ is preparing His bride for the wedding we read about in the Book of Revelation -- the wedding when Jesus returns to be joined with the church as His bride. 
• Like the coming of Christ, the full meaning and significance of marriage is a wonderful mystery. I don't think we can fully understand it until it happens.  

When we think about marriage like this, we can look at salvation like an engagement. What happens after your engagement -- after you become a Christian? You start preparing for the wedding -- Christ's return.  

We (followers of Christ) are the bride, and our bridegroom will soon return for us. How cool is that! When I got married, I left my old life behind. When I became Mrs. Baughman, my name changed and my new identity was found in my relationship with my husband. I became dependent on Mike for my needs and he provided for me. As the bride of Christ, I also have a new identity in Him and I look to Him for my daily needs. Like my husband, Jesus loves me and wants to live with me forever.

Without a doubt, God wants every marriage to be a picture of the relationship Jesus has with His bride, the church. When you understand this biblical picture of marriage, you understand that Satan would like nothing more than to destroy it. Mike and I don't have a perfect marriage but we keep striving for it because we want to be like Christ in everything we do. We see our marriage as a reflection of God and His goodness. We see this earthly marriage as practice for what is to come. We know that when Jesus returns, there will be a perfect marriage like no other. 

To God be the glory for great things He has done! Thank you Lord for my marriage, for a husband who loves you, and for the hope you give us everyday as we strive to glorify you in all we do. 

“Let us rejoice and exult and give Him glory, because the wedding celebration of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.” ~Rev. 19:7

If you want to know more about how I became a Christian, you can click here to a previous blog.