I've seen the topic of marriage come up sort of frequently lately. Now for someone of my age, I guess marriage is a little ways off-- even farther off if I take into consideration all I have to learn about life with God. I was thinking just now of the calling that every godly husband has to love his wife like Christ loves His church. The Bible tells husbands to love their wives as if they were their ( the husbands') own bodies. For Christ loves His church, and the church is Christ's body. In light of this, no husband can ever lord it over his wife and cite Scripture on how wives are supposed to respect and submit to their husbands, for with all the weight of those passages, the directive for husbands to love their wives falls on the family as well. For every divinely commanded part of respect the wife is called to hold for her husband, there is an equal (if not greater, since, in this metaphor, husbands represent Christ) call for the man to love his wife.What a heavy thing I must ask myself when(/...if...?) I consider marriage: am I ready to love my prospective wife as Jesus loves His church-- painfully, sacrificially, irrationally, relentlessly, and unconditionally?

Of course, I will probably have no idea of how that will play out at the time. No, that lesson will most likely be a years long process that will entail trials and hardships... but the question still stands: am I ready? Am I ready to face those storms which are sure to come, and love my wife through them all? Am I ready to love and forgive and ask for forgiveness in the many times that I'm going to need to? Granted, the answers to these questions will probably be "no"... and if they are "yes," it's very likely either a dishonest or deluded answer =P But I should at least know what I'm getting myself into, and the things which I am asking God to teach me through whatever crucibles are necessary. The love that Jesus has for the Church is a radical one, and it is a reflection of that in which I am making a vow to partake.

More than simply "loving" one's wife as a vague sort of emotion, the role of a husband includes the attitude of servitude. Interestingly enough, the word "husband" also used to mean a peasant farmer. This led to the usage of "husbandry" as related to farming or gardening. I can imagine the connection between a gardener carefully looking after his plants and a husband charged with spiritually leading a household. The husband is a sort of spiritual leader, and all spiritual leaders begin in an attitude of servitude.

Yeah, I think it's gonna be a while before I get married =P