Marriage: A Reflection of God’s Glory 1

After a long, difficult day at the office, Bill comes home to a house filled with boisterous children and a really pooped wife.

By long and difficult I mean that Bill’s job, in the normal state of affairs, takes 90 minutes to get to. But today, there was an accident on the way home that cause the freeway to be stopped for a lot longer than usual. Also, he runs his own consulting business, which is a recent startup, so he needs to spend at least 10 hours a day getting it up and running. Also, because he is new as an independent, no one trusts him, and everyone thinks they know his job better than he does. On top of all this, he found out today that his top financial supporter is backing out of the project.

So, Bill has been up since 4:00 a.m., he’s finally back home, it is 7:30 p.m. and he’s hungry and wiped.

On the other side of the front door, Bill’s wife Julie got up three times in the night to feed and change little Constance, their newborn. She got up for the last time at 4:00 a.m. to see Bill off to work and to get started on her day. Bill and Julie have three kids, spaced about 18 months apart. The day started well enough, a little puttering around, getting breakfast ready, getting the kids up and dressed, etc. Then, after breakfast, the wheels began to come off. It just seemed like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. George (three years old) found himself exploring and examining a potted plant in the living room. One minute everything was good, the next, there was dirt everywhere. George had dirt in every nook and cranny of his body. There was dirt in his hair, in his clothes, in all his pockets, everywhere. And the dirt in the house was unbelievable. Who knew that that pot had that much dirt in it. Before this, Julie had thought it was a small pot.

Then, while Julie was trying to clean all that up, two-year-old Suzy, who had discovered funnel spiders the day before, decided to see if she could find some pill bugs to feed to the spiders. While turning rocks over to find the bugs, she dropped one of them on her foot which crushed her big toe. She started screaming and rolling around holding her foot, which caused the baby to start howling and now there was pandemonium both inside and outside the house.

Julie hauled George out of the tub, wrapped him in a towel, put him in is room and told him to stay there until she came back, and ran to find out what was wrong in the rest of the house. Somehow, Julie remembered that Suzy had started the melee, so she scooped the baby up and ran to find Suzy. She found Suzy holding her foot and crying softly with those kinds of deep sobs that tear your heart out. She had worked herself up into such a state that she was shaking and rocking back and forth. When she saw her mother, she burst into a whole new kind of crying and Julie had to hold her, and the baby, for several minutes until she stopped crying and could tell her story.

When all was said and examined, it didn’t appear that they would need to go to the doctor, but because of the kind of bruising, it was clear that Suzy was going to lose her toe-nail. Julie put ice on the wound and after a lot of touching, holding, talking, etc. Suzy was pretty much okay.

Julie went back to finish with George. Then lunch.

The rest of the day was pretty much the same. Lots going on. Many, many disasters rose up, but most were avoided. In the middle of the afternoon, everyone had a short nap. Julie got up before the kids and had a few minutes to think about supper. About that time, Bill called to say he would be home late and to not wait for him for supper.

So, Julie has been up since 4:00 a.m., the kids were fed, almost ready for bed, she hadn’t eaten because she wanted to wait for Bill, it is 7:30 p.m., she’s hungry and wiped.

Julie hears Bill’s car drive up, she hears the door shut, she hears his footsteps on the walk, she sees the door open, and there he is, looking like he feels.

What do you suppose happens next?