Life together

Yesterday, Annika and a friend were playing “The Game Of Life.” You know the game. You get a cute little colored minivan and stick in a cute little pink or blue person (yes, I have the woman drive when I play).  You spin and go around the road of Life.  Along the way there are choices. College or Career Path? Which Career do you choose? What risks do you want to take? What kind of house? And, Life happens…Get Married! Have Kids! Adopt a dog! Win the Ultimate Idol TV Show!! (Pretty sure that wasn't on my version when I was growing up).  There are things you have to pay for as well.  Furnish Baby’s Room (pay $5,000).  Take a family cruise vacation (pay $25,000 + $5,000 per child). Sheesh! Who are these people? Lose your job. Tornado hits house. Have cosmetic surgery. Seriously?!

Then you make it to the end…Retirement.  Hopefully your little pastel minivan is now full of kids. You are rich and happy.  Next choice: will you spend the rest of your life in Millionaire Estates or Countryside Acres? Nice, perfect and wrapped in a bow. Fold up the game and Life is over.

Ah, if it were that easy. Wouldn't it be nice if, in our Real Game of Life, we landed on “Go to ER with son who fell off couch and broke his arm. Pay $2,500”, we just had to pay our pretend money, and then it’s someone else’s turn?  Or, perhaps, we land on the space, “Family member gives you heartbreaking news. Pay $50,000.” Then, as quickly as a spin of the wheel, we have moved on, not affected at all.  But, that’s not how life happens.  Life happens with infertility, lost jobs, loved ones taken too soon, marriages ending, and children making bad choices. It’s not an easy spin and “next turn.”  Instead, we are left changed as we continue on our path. Somethings may make us happier, more confident or learning something about ourselves that we wouldn't have learned otherwise. But, often our "spins" leave us hurt, confused, or frustrated. “The Game of Life” nicely avoids those problems.  There’s no space at the end that says “Pay $100,000 for therapy.”

Pink little me has been riding in a little minivan with my hunky blue man for 13 years. On August 5, 2000, before God and our family, we committed to Life “until death do us part.” Along the way, we have stopped at “Get Married!” “Buy a house!” “Have kids!” Four times for that last one. (Thankfully, we skipped right over the “Twins!” space).  We've bypassed spaces that we would have liked to have landed on, and landed on spaces we would have liked to have bypassed. But, when we look back at these last 13 years, Life has been good.

I am so deeply thankful, that Dan isn't like that little blue man in the plastic car. While the girls were playing, I overheard, “My husband keeps falling out of the car!”  In real life, Dan won’t just pop out when the turns are too sharp, or the car gets knocked over. He’s in this game with me all the way to the end. There's no other option. That’s part of our covenant to God and each other.

And, also, thankfully, for us, we aren't the ones driving our life.  Dan and I have been given something special. A Life, and a marriage, centered not on a little knob that spins the wheel willy-nilly but on the solid Rock of Christ. Every single part of our life has a purpose (whether we see it at the time, or not). We serve a great and loving God who is driving our Life down the best path that will give Him (not me) the most glory.  Sometimes it means taking a risk, sometimes it’s a hit that we didn't see coming, and still other times it’s enjoying the goodness of all that life has to offer. 

Real life will happen. And, when it does, we’ll stay on the path and keep moving along one colorful space at a time.