John and I were blessed to spend an evening with a couple who have been married longer than us. I had made reservations at a nice restaurant, so there was no wait for us to be seated. There is a wide overlap of shared history, friends, beliefs. It was easy to talk and to listen, the four of us being veterans of small groups and confidentiality.

The conversation got real without too many skid marks, as we spoke about the patterns whose ruts are embedded over half a lifetime. Make that two thirds.

The notion poked a hole in my unspoken assumption that marriages eventually get to coast. Probably by your fortieth all the kinks are worked out. Right? All that is left is dessert? But that does not jive with the bald facts of longevity. Did I suppose that people who live past sixty are actually done cooking and are merely waiting for a vacant table in heaven? Octogenarians have no issues left? How quaint. Probably the content shifts from kids and careers to spleens and ambulation.

Our time on this planet is purposeful. We have work to do, and contrary to the illusion that there is no hurry, maybe there is.

The thing I brought up in my How are you? for the evening was my regret over a lost opportunity. Someone I had never met and may never speak to again landed in my life for a summer. Yesterday we said goodbye and instead of gladness for having connected I was ornery. If this was a test called "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." * ... I had flunked. Sure I had opened the door to my house, but not into my circle. In our parting conversation I learned that he aspires to be a cardiac surgeon. How about that. He wants to fix broken hearts.

Marriage is a chance to entertain angels too. Most of us are still in celestial school, with a long internship ahead of us. But the lessons are not in short supply if we look up from our own bellybuttons. Being a safe haven for this cherub next to us may be the holiest thing we ever do, even if we smile and part ways on the other side.

"Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." **

When the feast is prepared I want to be ready. I believe the reservation has already been called in. There won't be much of a wait.

And I bet there won't be any more broken hearts.


* Hebrews 13

** Revelation 19