Recently I needed to wrap a package. I gathered various equipment like tape and scissors, a box and bubble wrap. I did my best to swaddle it in such a way that it would protect the present inside without giving a hint as to its contents, and still afford stability for its journey in trucks and mailbags. I used a permanent marker to label it to the lucky recipient, and handed it to the post lady over the counter.

 

Some days later, it arrived safely at the door of my daughter, and she enjoyed both the unwrapping and the gift inside.

 

The egg is an interesting package. The surface is surprisingly seamless, with no suggestion of how its contents managed to get inside or will eventually get out. As many science students who have devised various tests for the dropping of eggs from precarious heights can attest, it is remarkably sturdy. There is no identifying mark as to its sender or owner, so we are left to guess. Yet the wonder of what happens inside defies any earthly endeavor, when we find ways to peek through the shell and see that soft, peeping life comes where there was slimy ooze.

 

You are an egg. You began marriage as a somewhat oozy individual, unformed and unfinished. Yet inside you are changing in marvelous ways. To the casual observer, there may be no visible indicator of how drastically you are growing in this marriage, indeed you may well be oblivious yourself. Yet you are softening, developing, and coming to life.

 

We invite you to write a letter to your spouse, articulating some of the ways you would like to see your marriage grow. You can write this even if you have not yet met your partner. Set it aside and let it hibernate awhile. Then when it feels hatchy, take it to the post lady and mail it. No doubt you will have long forgotten what you even wrote, and it will come as a fresh surprise when it arrives back at your door and you enjoy reading it together over breakfast.

Spiritual life develops successively from one age to another, as from an egg, so that a person is as it were being born continually. Secrets of Heaven 4378

 

photo by Jenny Stein

www.caringformarriage.org