As most of you know by now, Karin and I are getting married. PRAISE GOD! Praise God for all of His amazing blessings! What I ever did to deserve this one, is beyond me, though. She has been such a model of grace and patience for the last 3 1/2 years. She is a HUGE reason I came to know Christ as my savior! PRAISE GOD for Karin! Karin - I love you so much, Babe!!! So, this means we'll now have 3 Karin/Karen Farringtons in our family. Weird...
Anyway, I've been thinking a lot over the last 6 months about what the Bible has to say about marriage, and keep coming back to what Paul wrote to the church in Ephasis; "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body." Eph 5:25-30
What a daunting, but exciting responsibility. "Here you go... be like Christ!" What??? How am I supposed to love her like Christ did? How am I supposed to do anything as perfectly or purely as Christ did? Oh yeah (I often forget...) I have Christ living in me! Who doesn't like the challenge, or as I like to think of it; privilege, to live like their hero? I remember when I was a kid trying to hit a home run like Hank Aaron or Larry Hisle or George Foster. Or pretending that there was 3 seconds on the clock and I am Larry Bird making the game winning shot. Well, I'm getting to do something even greater (I think) and am saying to myself, "I'm heading down the home stretch. I GET to love Karin like Christ loved the church." Only instead of just watching Larry Bird on TV, I get Christ's playbook on how He did what He did! And if (when) I screw up, I know that I get another chance. Not that I want to screw up, but I know myself, and know how often I miss that 3 pointer.
