The blind leading the blind

I think it a sad commentary on marriage in this country, in this world, when the statement "after "x" amount of years, and you're still happy...or in love...etc. It seems rather horrible, dishonoring, when we have to give a standing ovation or free desert or a complimentary meal for being married for so long. Shouldn't marriage be expected to last and not expected to fail? Yet this is the world in which we marry. If wine and cheese are supposed to be better with age, shouldn't something of a sacred nature grow more beautiful and deep and happy with age as well? Just like our relationship with the Lord should grow deeper and more profound as it ages, so should our human relationships. Our friendships do, the relationships with our children do, but we seem astounded when a marriage lasts and is happy to boot.
Russ and I always joke in a very serious manner, that we are going to be married and in love for the next 98 years. I think that is one of the reasons that we have made it through all the ups and downs we have had. Quitting is not an option and divorce is a sin, and Christ is the center. Our focus , though at times gets inward and lost in the daily irritations and details, yet somehow we turn our eyes from our feet and our selfishness, and outward toward God, each other and the road ahead. That perhaps is the secret to a long, happy marriage...not, a marriage that gets by because it must for the children's sake or any other excuse beside sticking to one's covenant of love and faithfulness, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, till death do us part, as long as we both shall live. In these very vows there lies the promise of hardship along with happiness, the two walk hand in hand, as a married couple must as well.
G.K. Chesterton stated, "Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind." As love grow old together, and the eyes do grow dim with age, marriage is bound because of what it has seen of the other, and what the other has seen of oneself. It has no where else to go but deeper in and further in love.