Blessings Wrapped in Seaweed

This summer we took our family vacation back to Seaside, Florida. This is my favorite place in the world. The happiest place on earth. Laid back environment. Beautiful houses surrounded by white picket fences. White sand and crystal blue water. My little family all to myself. When we’re in Seaside, all is right with my world.

This year, however, there was a slight imperfection in my perfect world. We got to the beach to find the shoreline draped in seaweed. Okay, no problem. Walk over the seaweed to the crystal blue water, right? Wrong. The seaweed was in the water too. To reach the crystal blue you had to wade through about six feet of seaweed and algae. If you’re willing to go through all the goo, only then can you enjoy clear, cool water you traveled so far to see.

It occurs to me that marriage is a lot like a beach with seaweed. When you’re in the newly engaged state it’s like driving to Seaside. You can’t wait to get to this happiest of all places – marriage. Then, at some point in the marriage whether it’s year one or year twenty, the seaweed hits. It feels yucky. It’s messy, stinky and all you want to do is shower off and be done with it!

However, the truth is, if you can manage to work through it then you get past the stink to the crystal blue. Quitting before you get to that clearest and coolest of water robs you of the full beach experience. The best part of marriage comes from wading through the gunk.

Chris and I have taken turns wading through our share of seaweed. By God’s grace, we’ve stuck with it for 16+ years. We’ve planted our feet firmly on the covenant we made before God. We’ve gotten on our face in prayer asking for strength to work through it when everything was pulling us apart. The days we thought we couldn’t take each other one more second; God reminded us marriage isn’t about individual happiness as much as it’s about bringing glory to Him. When we take our eyes off our own agenda and place them back on God's agenda we find our hearts drawn back to one another.

You’ve heard the phrase, “a whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Marriage is more important than the two people who make it. The hard times serve a divine purpose (making us more like Christ), just as the seaweed is a necessary part of marine life. When I started in marriage I never knew how hard it could be nor did I have a clue how rich it could be.

We don’t drive all the way to Florida to just sit on the beach. We pack up the car, board the dog, and make the eleven hour journey to get in the water. I know there’s more seaweed in our future. That’s life. I pray for God’s grace everyday to wade through it. Here’s to the blessings of seaweed! Get me to deeper waters, Lord!