Accepting, Celebrating, Living in God's Image

So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Gen. 1:26

I've had a lot of pretty good evenings this summer. But last night was without a doubt the best. A nice Italian dinner, a glass or two of Chianti, and a couple of the most disgracefully awful bowling scores I've ever put my name to...all with the woman I love, to celebrate nine years of marriage. I am so thankful to God for the wild ride we've taken, and for the family we've become.

Like many couples who've spent nine years together, there's a certain comfort that sets in...you know each other's tastes, jokes and stories, you get a sense of what will make them happy, what will make them laugh and cry, what they'll find exciting or frightening. Being comfortable is a good thing sometimes.

But more than comfort, what makes me smile as I write this is the sense of being accepted and celebrated, and the joy of accepting and celebrating another, all the more now that we really know each other, and begin to discover how much more there is to know. The woman I know today, I love all the more, because of the gifted counselor she is becoming and the lives she will change for the better; the compassion she is instilling in our son; the strength and confidence she is instilling in our daughter.

The Bible says that from the very beginning humankind was meant to reflect the image of God, not just individually, but in close community. Accepting the other and being accepted. "In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." It is not gender in itself--maleness or femaleness--that causes us to bear God's image, but rather, our capacity to love and fully commit to another. I feel that God's image really has been reflected to a fuller degree in my life as a member of a family than as an individual.

As Laura and I continue to live out our call as partners and teammates in the adventure of life in Christ, I give thanks to God. I pray that all who feel called to do so, can share this same gift of acceptance, of celebration, of commitment to another's good, as a training ground for the love to which Jesus calls us all. I pray this for those who can legally marry in their state, and for those who look forward to having that right acknowledged someday by their fellow citizens.

I am truly grateful for my best friend, my life coach, my muse, my high school crush, my wife. May God bless you and your family--whatever shape it may take--as richly as God has blessed me.