Last Lessons #65 - MARRIAGE

 “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Genesis 2:18

Not everyone is called to be married. I am thankful for those whose calling is to remain unmarried so that they may better serve God. I think of Wetherell Johnson who started Bible Study Fellowship, John Stott who was an incredible Bible expositor, and Karen Elliott who is now the Executive Director of Rafiki. On the other hand, some are to be married to better serve God. I am one of those. I needed a partner.

Because I was a Christian, the one thing I knew was that I was to marry a man, not a woman! Genesis 1:27-28 makes that clear.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

God has his perfect plan for males and females to marry, to be fruitful and multiply and to have dominion over the earth. For me, a tiny part of God’s plan was to take a woman from Florida and a man from Minnesota, have them meet in Texas so that he could send them to Africa! Who would have ever thought of that, except our amazing God. Here’s how he worked behind the scenes.

When I arrived in San Antonio, Texas, to study occupational therapy, I had no idea that I would meet the man I was to marry to make my dream of being a missionary come true. His name was Robert T. Jensen and he had just returned from the Korean War where he served as a doctor. He had been highly decorated for bravery. He was a major in the Army Medical Corps. I was a second lieutenant in the Army Medical Specialists Corps. We met at a “bachelor/bachelorette” dance for commissioned officers at Ft. Sam Houston. The funny story was that Bob and a doctor friend of his flipped a coin to see who would ask me to dance. Bob lost, so he had to dance with me! Actually, Bob told me later that he had decided that night that I would be his wife. For him, it was love at first sight. That was not the case for me. When he called for a date the next day, I didn’t remember who he was and turned him down. I was dating a couple of other guys because at that time the men officers at Ft. Sam Houston outnumbered the women officers ten to one. Not a bad place for a single woman like me to be! Later, Bob asked me to go to lunch and then dinner and then the symphony and the opera and I began to know him. I almost married an Air Force guy whose father was very wealthy, but God

clearly said “no”. In the meantime, Bob had been asking me to marry him every day after our first month of dating. That was September 1953. I continued to say “no” because I had not known him long enough to marry him. But Bob was persistent and so when in December he ordered me to marry him, I had to say, “Yes, sir” because he outranked me! Actually, he always outranked me!

Bob and I married on February 20, 1954, in a military wedding – swords and all. I was 24 years old, and Bob was 27. With all its ups and downs, our marriage lasted for 60 years. We never considered divorce because we had made our vows to God.

God’s plan was to send us as partners to Africa. It seems that most often, the Lord sends his people two by two where he wants them to serve him. Even today when Rafiki sends single missionaries to Africa, we try to send two together. It is safer that way (especially for women) and they can support and encourage each other.

“After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.” Luke 10:1

I have learned that marriage is a partnership – one man with one woman – so that they may become fruitful physically in having children and spiritually in serving the needs of people in the places where God intends to work. For Bob and me with a two-year old, that was Africa.

Have you thought of why God has given you a spouse, or even more than one spouse? Maybe you have remained single, or been widowed like me? Whatever your condition at this point in life, God has reasons for you to be as you are and Paul explains in 1Corinthians 7 how you are to respond. Read the chapter. God has shown me why I live alone now. I can serve him better in a number of ways.

If God has gifted you with a spouse, and maybe a family, it’s for a reason you may not know now, but God will tell you if you ask him. Maybe he wants you, alone or with your spouse, to lead a Bible study, or teach Sunday school, or work in your church, or start a ministry, or give to Christian ministries, or start a church, or go into politics, or teach children, or help in prolife work, or paint pictures or write music or write books for his glory, or heal people, or commit to being good Christian parents who have jobs. Whatever it is, God has made you for a purpose. Make sure you are fulfilling it.