Marriage, during the time of the coronavirus can be stressful.

One writer for the New York Times called it “the ultimate stress test” for a Marriage. A friend of mine who lives in Israel said that she wasn’t worried about the virus. She said, with a laugh, she was worried about the temptation to strangle her husband!

Belinda Luscomb writes for Time: “As the coronavirus is obliging us to spend the vast majority of our hours in the same surroundings with the same human adult, we have to figure out new ways of working, living, parenting and just getting along with each other. The good news is that couples now have plenty of opportunities and together time to hash out those issues that they may have been avoiding. The bad news is that they now more or less have to hash out those issues that they may have been avoiding—and under pressure-cooker conditions.

So I have been praying for the marriages of our church. And my own (being married to me is not easy.)

It has also forced me to think once again about the basics of marriage. Here are a few brief thoughts on the basics:

A healthy church has healthy marriages. Not perfect marriages. There is only one perfect marriage (already, but not yet) – Christ and the church. But healthy marriages, according to Genesis, in this life, are lived in a "covenant of companionship" wonderfully engaged "side-by-side" and "face-to-face." Now, the strange thing is that the Bible says there is a "mystery" – that our marriages are supposed to be like Christ and the church. So I will be wondering out loud if, when our children look at their parent's marriage, they instinctively say, "Well, that reminds me of the covenantal, intimate, faithful love and mutual delight which Jesus and the church have for each other."

That’s what I’m praying for my marriage and the marriages of our church. And that my wife won’t strangle me.

Musings from Pastor John