Articles

Taking Up Her Life

Several years ago, a young woman was attacked by a grizzly bear at Portal Creek, in the Canadian Rockies.

The man she was with responded immediately. He hurled himself at the bruin. He yanked at its grizzled mane. He attacked the bear – until he himself became the object of the animal’s fury, instead of her. By the time the bear was finished, the man had given up his life for his partner. But she lived – and stumbled back to the trail-head, to safety.

This story is an image of exactly what a loving husband does. He takes on the fury of his wife’s problems and makes them his own. He welcomes them as though they belonged to himself.

A husband does more than give his life in death. He gives his life in life – continually – choosing to lay down his own life by taking up his wife’s life. He makes her life into his life. He gives her the gift of his life.

She’s got problems. She’s got struggles. She’s got baggage. She’s got anxieties. She doesn’t need to be preached to, or scolded, or criticized. What a loving husband does is simply say – welcome, let me take those burdens, let me carry those pains, give me those problems – I’m so glad you are mine.

To paraphrase Romans 8 . . .

Where is the husband who will bring a charge against his wife? Nowhere! The husband will justify her, so who will condemn her? Not the husband! He will intercede on her behalf!

When a husband is for his wife, who can be against her?