By Olivia Proctor, President of Bulldogs For Life
Marriage is a gift from God. Since the beginning, God planned marriage and unity as a gift. Indeed, man was never meant to live alone. Eve was given to Adam as a helper, and they were both commanded to be fruitful and multiply. Marriage was always intended to be a gift that provides union, companionship, and the fruit of the womb—life.
Sadly, sometimes we break God’s good gifts. Divorce is the result of brokenness in our lives, and it is, itself, a life issue. At the very least, it injures the family, and it causes death to the union which God intended for life. Over the past couple of years, I have witnessed many families get torn apart by divorce. Family friends and relatives who I never dreamed would separate have given in to the devil’s temptations of infidelity and false freedom. Even in limited cases where divorce may be permissible on biblical grounds, it still has detrimental effects. It still creates suffering because of sin.
Just as sin and death were never intended for us, neither was divorce. The sting of divorce never goes away, especially for those marriages which are already well established with children. Memories of how the family should have been—when the marriage was a picture of Christ and the Church—linger. They are lasting. But when divorce mucks everything up, those memories become a picture of what has been destroyed. What was supposed to be a beautiful representation of the relationship between Christ and His bride the Church, becomes distorted into a sad picture of Satan, sinners, and brokenness.
Since the fall into sin, there is nothing that has been taken away from the original intent of marriage. Marriage is still a gift, it still unites man and wife, and it still gives two people the beautiful opportunity to participate in creation through the act of becoming one. New life still comes through marriage. And in Christ, marriage is made new.
Thanks be to God that divorce is not the end of the story. Christ indeed took on our sins that we might be clothed with His righteousness and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Thanks be to God that we are no longer slaves to sin. We are free to live in righteousness, and as sanctified people, we look for ways to love God by serving our neighbor, especially our nearest neighbors – spouse, child, and family. We are free to practice the virtues of loyalty and self-sacrifice, to experience the joy that comes from placing another’s needs above our own. And as forgiven people, we are free to forgive our spouse, to love sacrificially, and to live in harmonious marriages that represent Christ and the Church.