I recently picked up Two Part Invention, a book Madeleine L'Engle (author of Wrinkle in Time) wrote on her marriage. She was married for forty
years to Hugh Franklin, a Broadway and television actor (a bit of trivia--they lived in the same
building as Leonard Bernstein if you can believe it). Recovering
from an illness, I'm trying to focus on more uplifting topics, and if I’d read more
about the book, I might not have chosen it at this time because there is a sad storyline.
Though the book switches between the beginning of their marriage and while Hugh
is in his last days, I still found surprising encouragement.
She writes of the importance of
humor, joy, and beauty in the challenging times. “I do not want ever to be
indifferent to the joys and beauties of this life. For through these, as
through pain, we are enabled to see purpose in randomness, pattern in chaos. We
do not have to understand in order to believe that behind the mystery and the
fascination there is love. In the midst of what we are going through . . I have
to hold on to this, to return to the eternal questions without demanding an answer.”
When life hands us difficulties,
we are tempted to try and make God explain himself. It never works that way. It’s
good to remember we don’t need to demand an answer if we trust God’s love.
I think of Jacob wrestling with a
man all night and his hip is wrenched, but still he will not let go when the
man asks to be released. Jacob says, “I will not let you go unless you bless
me” (Genesis 32:26). In the end, Jacob
realizes he is wrestling with God, and God gives him a new name, Israel.
Wycliffe writes, “In the titanic struggle, Jacob came to realize his own
weakness and the superiority of the mighty One who had touched him . . . he became
a new man, who could receive the blessings of God and assume his place in God’s
plan.” When Charles Wesley wrote a hymn from this Biblical story, in response
to Jacob’s question about who the man was, he wrote, “Thy nature and thy name
is love.”
In the hard times, God’s nature
and name is still love. Even when we're wrestling, he blesses us. And if we hold
on to God’s love, that love will always carry us through.