Marriage,  Suffering

In sickness and in health

Marriage doesn’t always mean breeding smiles, laughter and celebration. If it was presumed to be so, there’s absolutely no significance to the marriage vows we exchanged on our big day.

With zeal and passion, I repeated the solemn wedding vows, promising the love of my life that I would be with him “in sickness and in health”, while declaring my consent out loud before God and the church.

Those five little words “in sickness and in health” we breezed through might’ve been carried away with the initial “being in love” phase – the adventurous honeymoon, the midnight outings, the unplanned treats and not to mention the lively weekends. Honestly, I was on cloud nine and life couldn’t be any happier.

I certainly did not envision sitting beside a sick person on the bed, serving him and feeling loved. Even though there were few sick days, they ran over us so quickly that I can’t recollect those incidents right now. However, I clearly remember the days my husband took an instant day off from work, after getting ready to work in the morning, just to stay by my side when I was sick.

Fast forward four years, here we are, at the receiving end of blow after blow. We barely had any gap between sicknesses. After 2 weeks of our baby girl falling sick and still recovering, my husband fell sick. Any other sickness would allow friends to come visit and keep company, but chickenpox fell in the other category – we had to play untouchables for a very long time. To my husband who is accustomed to going around, it was pretty hard to stay confined to the bed in a tiny hospital room. It was scary for me to see him sick and weak.

Apparently, I’ve been meditating on the plagues listed in Exodus. To my amusement, I only realised in this read, that the miserable Israelites also had to experience the first three plagues along with the arrogant Egyptians. While I could not comprehend the why’s and how’s, I accepted being plagued, believing deliverance is on it’s way.

This very morning, on our special day, I was thankful that he’s back home a day before our wedding anniversary. But, my heart stings to see him sick. As I was struggling to pray, not knowing what to say, I was having my quiet time, and here’s what the Lord said –

For I am the Lord who heals you.
Exodus 15:26

That was exactly what I needed to hear on this memorable day. It was soothing.

As we continue on this adventurous journey, I remind myself of this verse –
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:5

I can proudly say, we’re sustaining our marriage by our commitment to love and cherish each other “in sickness and in health” with a renewed exchange of vows.

We’re thankful to all the prayers extended for our family. God bless you!

Like it? Share it!

3 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.