Saying Goodbye

OnTuesday night our family gathered for a last meal

before my husband left for the Sudan

A few days ago I had to say goodbye to my husband who left for his first three-month stint in the Sudan. He's been home between contracts for the last eight months, so greeting him this time was very difficult. While I watched the car disappear up the street, I wondered how people can wittingly sever themselves forever from their marriage partners.

Matthew 19: 4b-6 says: “God made them male and female. And He said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one separate them, for God has joined them together. “

In this Scripture, Jesus affirmed the importance of the marriage relationship. We may find it confining to be without an”escape hatch” in marriage, but God always intended that marriage be a lifelong relationship. We need to realise that marriage is permanent and that a man and woman become one through this sacred institution.

While planning our wedding in 1972, I typed out the service program and hymns – 200 sheets in all - on a manual typewriter! No word processors or computers in those days. On the sheet cover, which had a picture of two rings intertwined and the seashore as background, I typed the latter part of the above Scripture. “Whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder” which was the exact wording in my Bible.

Leaving home for the airport last Wednesday, I couldn't ascertain whether my husband was excited to be returning to work (which he said he was) or apprehensive at entering the unknown (which I'm sure he was)