The Other Spouse

"The kiss of daily, present communion, is that which we pant after to be repeated day after day...O lover of our souls, be not strange to us; let the lips of Thy blessing meet the lips of our asking; let the lips of Thy fullness touch the lips of our need, and straightway the kiss will be effected." Spurgeon

Father's Day morning, I awake to a mop of Red curls tickling my nose as tiny toes brush softly against his father's chest.

True to her early bird-nature, our Bird's brown eyes peer through tussled hair as she chirps from her roll-away bed perch.

Blue-eyes, our warrior boy, emerges from his closet cave in need of some wrestling.

I breathe in these three in a hotel room in Virginia, as I look to my "I do" man. In them, I cannot see where I begin and he ends; they are one flesh pointing to the Heavens displaying the divine mystery of us.

Each beautiful child giving me a larger picture of the man I love.

This man who began our story by choosing me has always understood that he married a woman with an untamed heart who longs to love hard and more often than not falls short; he has left space for the Lover of my soul, the other spouse...the Bridegroom.

And yet, my greatest lasting joys on this earth reside in the moments of refining relationship with this man as we love each other in His grace, with His Truth, and by His sacrifice, as we painfully lose more of ourself to gain more of Him...the mystery of one flesh...one flesh where I no longer see where I begin and he ends just more of our Father.

A marriage of three...this place where Red curls, Blue-eyes, and Bird get their first glimpses of worship within the body of Christ...our family...broken and messy in us; a divine mystery in Him.