TheDiscipleMD
On a recent visit to my in-laws I discovered a photo of me and my wife which I had never seen before. The photo was taken a few days before our wedding. The most interesting and ironic aspect of this long-lost photo is that we were captured on a Merry-Go-Round. How apropos for what life has to hold for a young couple.
The dreams of a young couple were captured in the words of Gordon Lightfoot when he sang:
And we climb aboard our ponies
As in a row they stand
Then down the road we gallop
And across the fields we fly
And soon we all go sailing off
Into the midnight sky (“The Pony Man”)
As a young couple beginning life together, it does seem that we will go sailing off into the midnight sky. Dreams are a plenty and life is full of the possibilities! Alas, as the years go by the merry-go-round of our lives can throw us off the ride if we are not careful. Sometimes we find the ride can be more perilous then we thought. However, finding the ride to be more dangerous than we thought, is not necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, the joy of the ride has increased and become more exciting because it is filled with more thrills then we anticipated.
In fact, the merry-go-round of life need not throw us off at all. We have an “iron rod” to hold onto which is meant to serve as a steady safe manner in which to stay on course. Holding fast to the pole of iron was spoken of by an ancient prophet when he compared it to the word of God. He wrote:
“…and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.”
Let us remember, as couples and as individuals, that each of us have been given a ‘pole of iron,’ which should anchor us safely onto the Merry-Go-Round of life. If we hold on tight to the pole of righteousness we can enjoy the exciting ride and the sights that come with it.