The Sunday News
Justice Ndlovu
IN all courses people are always given the final certificates after finishing and passing the course, and then you graduate but in marriage you are given the certificate before passing and finishing the course. Why? Is it because people who get married are so intelligent such that it is obvious that they will never fail in marriage? Is it because they dated so long such that they now know each other? Is it because it is obvious that the two are in love so they will succeed because love is patience and endurance?
Today we are going to unveil some reasons why this marriage certificate is given before the end of marriage. This question troubled me and I ended up asking my grandfather why it is so. His response sounded funny as he said, “Son! In marriage you will never graduate. Even now I am still studying your grandmother but I still do not understand her.” His words fascinated me as I was trying to analyse them. Lately I understood that for sure in the class of marriage there is no graduate. No matter how you can study marriage, you will never come to understand it and no matter how intelligent you are, marriage is not understandable.
There is only one solution that can make our marriages to be strong and unshakable. It is “LOVE”. I know some of us are now shell shocked. I am saying this because it is love that can make our marriages strong; the love that I am talking about is not the love of a husband and a wife. No! But the person who can reinforce marriage and bring peace in an un-understandable home is the man who is found in 1 John 4 vs 8 (KJV)where it reads, “He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love”.
The other verse is John 4 vs 16 which reads: “ . . . God is love and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God and God in him.”
Looking at the above verses the Lord who created Heaven and earth his name is said to be “Love”. Families who invite God in their marriages are always strong and everlasting, for God is “Love”. The marriage officers are giving couples marriage certificates before marriage hoping that the couple will always dwell in love through God, not through their dating period or through their intelligence.
Without the invitation of God (Love) in the marriage there is no graduation and the marriage certificate becomes nothing without God who is Love. God is the one who can create a successful marriage and He is the one who constituted marriage in the Garden of Eden. We see this in the case of Adam and Eve. It is recorded in Genesis 2 vs 24 that , “therefore shall the man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”
God is always waiting to intertwine two different souls from different backgrounds with different characters. It is the prerogative of God to intertwine the two. Marriage officers are not there to make marriages successful but are there to pronounce couples husband and wife through the command of the Saviour. In Genesis 2 vs 24 which reads, “ A man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.” Basically the marriage officer is following the command of God. He is in the shoes of God to give those who are getting married the certificate because he does not know when the marriage graduation will be.
In a nutshell, beautiful people, today I have one antidote for you, that antidote is God himself. Invite him in your marriage and He is there waiting patiently in love, just to put an everlasting love in your marriage. As a family, create a family altar, i.e. create a certain place in your house where you will be praying every day. We can only talk to God through prayer. God said, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land (2nd Chronicles 7 vs 14). God promised us that he will hear our prayers; no matter how troubling your marriage is, God can be your antidote for your family, only through prayer. I entreat you all, if you wanted to divorce your wife or husband, wait and pray, you will see the change to your situation. May God bless you as you are going to pray from now on. 0733 484 369 / 0717 426 517
