How was your marriage proposal? Was it everything you had
dreamed of: the perfect place, the perfect lighting, the perfect outfit, the
perfect someone? The wedding proposal has become quite an important event in
our society. A lot of weight is placed on how much planning goes into it, how
much money is spent on it, if the right people are involved. Some feel the
proposal is the event that demonstrates the measure of a man’s affections. When
my husband proposed to me, I wasn’t sure what he was asking at first. We were
in a church full of people I didn’t know in a town I had no connection with in
the middle of a blizzard. He didn’t prepare a speech or get down on one knee.
It was not what I had expected. If I had based my decision to marry him on his
performance in that event, we wouldn’t have gotten married. Thank God the
proposal event was not what my husband was offering me.
We have all heard the expression “don’t judge a book by its
cover”. This sage advice implores us to look beyond the packaging at what is
actually being offered. Once the pretty gift-wrap is removed, you are left with
what the giver really intended for you to keep. Big events can be seen the same
way; once the proposal is over, once the wedding is done, you are left with the
actual contents of the gift you were offered. The events that lead to my
marriage might not have been all that shiny, but the gift of a life spent in
intimacy and friendship with my husband was what I was really receiving as a
result of those events.
This morning’s devotion in My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers reminded me how often we look to
God for experiences rather than at the gift that God is offering. Oswald points
out that we view salvation as an experience rather the great thought of God
toward us, the gift of His love wrapped in the event of Christ on the cross.
If we judge this gift based on esthetics, we probably won’t
be very interested in accepting it. God doesn’t usually propose when we are
looking our best or feeling ready for a commitment. He comes to us when we are
broken, downcast, fallen from grace. He proposes by showing the great distance
between our poverty and His majesty. He offers us His all in the face of our
complete lack, casting off His glory and choosing a life of suffering and ostracization
to be united with us for eternity. This is not the fairytale proposal we
expect. This is not the beauty and comfort we dream of when we imagine what
life with God should be like. And yet within this packaging is the most divine,
most precious gift anyone could hope to possess. It is the very heart of God in
humble wrappings. May we stop looking for the gilded gift-wrap of spiritual
experiences and instead receive the unfathomable gift of God’s love.
