The Marriage Triangle

Before we were married, I heard the illustration that marriage is like a triangle and the closer you each get to God, the closer you will grow toward each other.

And I liked that.  Neat and tidy and hopeful. But after seven years, I’m not sure marriage follows neat little formulas.

Now I think it’s a little more like a kite with two strings. And we’re each holding one and God is our wind; it wouldn’t even stay up in the air without him.  But still we wrestle.

We give it too much slack, that marriage kite, and it soars away too far, each of us busily managing our own isolated strings.  No one tames the wind or the Holy Spirit and we start to snap, crackle, and pop under the strain of that distance we’ve allowed.

So we have to draw it back in, winding our way back to each other and a safer place. And sometimes, like last week, we’re just mad and we jerk angrily at the slack, wrestling words and folly.

But we don’t let go, and God and the wind and Holy Spirit keep blowing, and it’s a triangle after all.

So we keep on flying that kite.

And it’s beautiful.