A Life Uncommon

“A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12 NIV)

This is an excerpt from a devotional I was sent today. I thought it was so good I just had to share it.

Speaking of a book the author had read she said "In its pages, Vanauken shared one of the key elements of his and Davy’s profound love."...

“Look,” we said, “what is it that draws two people into closeness and love? Of course, there’s the mystery of physical attraction; but beyond that, it’s the things they share. We both love strawberries and ships and collies and poems and all beauty, and all those things bind us together. Those sharings just happened to be; but what we must do now is share everything. If one of us likes anything, there must be something to like in it – and the other one must find it – every single thing that either of us likes. That way, we shall create a thousand strands, great and small, that will link us together. Then we shall be so close that it would be impossible - unthinkable – for either of us to suppose that we could ever recreate such closeness with anyone else. And our trust in each other will not only be based on love and loyalty, but on the fact of a thousand sharings – a thousand strands twisted into something unbreakable.” (Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy (New York: Bantam Books, 1977), 27)

Vanauken beautifully described the unbreakable bond that exists between intimate lovers and friends. In another book, he warned of creeping separateness that can threaten that oneness.

There is such a thing as creeping separateness. What do young people who are freshly married do? They can’t rest when they’re apart. They want to be together all the time. But they develop separate interests, especially if they have separate jobs and some separate friends. So, they drift apart. Soon, they have little in common except, maybe, the children. The stage is then set for one of them to fall in love with someone else. Later they’ll say the reason for the divorce was that he/she fell in love with someone else, but it wasn’t that at all. It was because they let themselves grow apart. ( Sheldon Vanauken, quoted in 601 Quotes About Marriage and Family, Compiled by William and Nancie Carmichael (Wheaton, Ill: Tyndale, 1998) 80).

I think this is just wonderful advice. We have fallen into this habit. I think I want to focus on it a bit more in my own marriage and friendships with my children.

I had a wonderful time this morning with Dash as he read a book on Jellyfish to me and we explored Google for images of jellyfish. It was very tender.