by Douglas DeBono, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT StandingOrders.BlogSpot.Com, September 30, 2005

This is the story of John and Mary (the names are changed to protect the guilty). I am going to rant about divorce, but in reality divorce is just the sin-of-the-day. I am not a fan of divorce, but in a broader context GOD is not real keen on sin.

And you see we've all sinned. I've chosen to put my soul in the hands of Christ and I lean heavily GOD's grace, because I am wholly incapable of not sinning.

Just so you understand that this isn't a holier-than-thou rant.

Anyway, back to John & Mary.

After twenty plus years of marriage, they got divorced, stranding two kids, a couple of cats and three dogs. While their marriage seemed like the death of a thousand cuts; their divorce was a train wreck.

Unfortunately, I watched from the sidelines. I talked to both of them (pleaded in one case) to give their family another chance.

Well John & Mary are getting married again--to different people. Curiously, their prospective spouses go the same church. In fact, their new homes will only be 2 blocks apart, and they went out as foursome to celebrate their engagements.

Huh?

If they are so buddy-buddy, then why couldn't they reconcile their lives to one another? Why not salvage their marriage and their children?

I don't have answers, except to say that sin is pervasive, immoral, illogical and that we are all trapped in its terrible clutches.

When I think about my sin, I am sickened at its depravity and relentlessness. I am thankful for a savior, because I cannot save myself. I am a drowning rat in a stormy sea going under for the third time, only to find a nail scarred hand hauling me to dry land.

Well those same nail scarred hands have ahold of John & Mary. I'm not casting stones. I hate divorce, because it messes up people. I just see John & Mary as a reminder that all our sins lead to same dark and lonely place called the grave, unless you've come to know the Carpenter from Galilee.