Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he charged him, “You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan-aram. So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please his father Isaac, Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, and sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.”
NL Daily Devotion for Wednesday, September 29, 2021
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
God gave the institution of marriage to show that, even in our human frailty, we should be gifted with another to spend our lives. It’s so we aren’t alone.
But marriage takes work. Whether one partner stands on one side politically, and the other on the opposite side. Or whether both people think alike. It takes two to make things work.
That’s why sometimes you need to make sacrifices, and sometimes you need to make amends and start fresh.
My wife and I frequently bump heads over things. We’re both strong first-borns!
Still, we love each other deeply and have been together for nearly 30 years now. That’s a blessing for which I am thankful, every day.
My brother has had three significant others (two wives), and struggles to make things work.
But each and every relationship, can be, and is, a gift. Until it’s not. Sometimes, it does make sense to begin anew.
May God continue to bless our relationships, no matter in what place we find ourselves. Amen.