Deuteronomy 24
More miscellaneous laws... This chapter begins with laws concerning marriage and divorce. My husband and I are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary today. It has been quite a journey - to both mountain tops and through some very low valleys. For some reason when I woke up this morning, I was remembering our shopping trip to Algeria (believe the town was Tlemcem) while we were living in Rota, Spain. That was so very long ago... We have not traveled too far in recent years. It seems that the older we get the more responsibilities we have near home and just don't seem to get away. After 40 years we still have not even figured out how to regularly take the same days off of work. Today though, we will spend the day together, visiting a few friends and relatives and going out to dinner.
Deut 24:5 (NRSV) says: "When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty." Howard and I were married a couple of months after he completed Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego. If we had stayed home and I had not been following him around the country and the world for 20 plus years, I wonder what our life would be like now. Definitely different and I think maybe there would have been more low valleys and less mountain tops as there were those who were pretty sure we needed a divorce and worked hard at letting us know that. I was not good enough for him and he was not good enough for me. Being away from family and raising children (often without a husband present - he spent a lot of time floating around on ships) taught me to trust God in ways that I would never have had to otherwise. It also taught me that there is a blood that is thicker than blood and that is the blood of Christ shed for you. My extended family became the church - the members of the Body of Christ.
So today, I am remembering a 40 year journey. Hopefully, we've reached the promised land...
More miscellaneous laws... This chapter begins with laws concerning marriage and divorce. My husband and I are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary today. It has been quite a journey - to both mountain tops and through some very low valleys. For some reason when I woke up this morning, I was remembering our shopping trip to Algeria (believe the town was Tlemcem) while we were living in Rota, Spain. That was so very long ago... We have not traveled too far in recent years. It seems that the older we get the more responsibilities we have near home and just don't seem to get away. After 40 years we still have not even figured out how to regularly take the same days off of work. Today though, we will spend the day together, visiting a few friends and relatives and going out to dinner.
Deut 24:5 (NRSV) says: "When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty." Howard and I were married a couple of months after he completed Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego. If we had stayed home and I had not been following him around the country and the world for 20 plus years, I wonder what our life would be like now. Definitely different and I think maybe there would have been more low valleys and less mountain tops as there were those who were pretty sure we needed a divorce and worked hard at letting us know that. I was not good enough for him and he was not good enough for me. Being away from family and raising children (often without a husband present - he spent a lot of time floating around on ships) taught me to trust God in ways that I would never have had to otherwise. It also taught me that there is a blood that is thicker than blood and that is the blood of Christ shed for you. My extended family became the church - the members of the Body of Christ.
So today, I am remembering a 40 year journey. Hopefully, we've reached the promised land...
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