Tuesday, October 27, 2029                (today’s lectionary)
Life together
After Margaret’s tooth was pulled, we drove home in silence. I touched her hand. I prayed for her. Later she felt more sore, but also more talkative. This morning is just the start of an implant she needs because of a broken tooth, but truly her teeth, like most of the rest of her, are healthy. And when something goes wrong, generally she heals quickly.
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
It was a dark and lonely day for me, sky full of rain and thick clouds. I had a heavy nap in mid-afternoon as I lost track of how I wanted to spend the day. As much as I enjoy the quiet and the solitude when Margaret is afar or amiss, I really miss her. Last night, in God’s company,  I was thinking of her life, at least what I know of it. Her birth, and her early childhood … I have a picture of Margaret sitting on a blanket in the grass, barely six months old. She was the dark-haired beauty, although somehow the “beauty” part never got quite communicated to her – she just felt different.
Husbands love your wives. Cleanse her and present her to the Lord in splendor, without spot, without wrinkle, holy and without blemish.
Her biography is precious to me. There are many Events, of course, but beyond those marked moments there are days upon weeks upon months upon years and then decades of years when she lives and breathes as God’s kid exploring everything. Her curiosity is as alive today as it has ever been. She does not settle, she thrives.
As is true of all our lives, look a bit below the surface of today and you find all of yesterday, where there is so much to see and be grateful for. Her particular mustard seed has grown high and wide into her own Margaret-Tree of Life. And who’s to stop that tree from growing still? As Wendell Berry’s Nathan Coulter told his wife in the last weeks of his life, “I’m going to live right on. Dying will have to take care of itself.”
What is the Kingdom of God like? It’s like a mustard seed that a woman took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.
Now as the day darkens early into dusk, the sound of her rummaging in the kitchen for something to eat refreshes my soul. As we head into another chapter of our lives here and in Texas, I want to spend a little more time (or a lot?) just sitting with her, touching her still fresh skin, and take turns laying our heads in each other’s lap.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
(Ephesians 5, Psalm 128, Matthew 11:25, Luke 13)
#
