14 Years of Marriage! Here's to A Mutatis Mutandis Hope!
It is the end of the year, and your photo albums and social media have likely organized a trip down memory lane for you.
I love to see how the algorithm curates the images of my year and farther back. What a wonderful aspect of the digital age.
When we see ourselves in images of the past, we inevitably reflect on how we’ve changed and grown.
Abi and I celebrate 14 years of marriage today!
Scrolling through memories of our time together, I constantly find myself saying, “We were just kids!” She is more likely to lament how many new aches and wrinkles have appeared.
I am working to convince her not to resent the changes, even ones that don’t appear to be improvements because I know where we’re headed together.
Mutatis Mutandis
This phrase means “when the necessary changes have been made.” Mutatis Mutandis speaks to the way something has an essential point of contact, even if some of the details are changed.
Christians have a resurrection and glorification future that allows us to embrace life with a mutatis mutandis hope. We, ourselves, will arrive in a New Creation with all the necessary changes as people who have experienced all of God’s necessary changes!
Because of the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection, I get the joy of a mutatis mutandis life. My marriage is a beautiful part of God’s mutatis mutandis plan!
Christ atoned for my sin, taking the condemnation on the cross that I deserved. Christ raised to life, and He has given life to me in the Spirit. I have confidence in a resurrection like His!
Christ’s body was laid in a tomb, and it was raised with all the necessary changes made, mutatis mutandis!
My body will be buried and raised or changed in His return, mutatis mutandis!
I have hope of a real resurrection, just like all of creation has the hope of restoration.
In Christ, you’ve been given more than just the hope of setting New Year’s resolutions without assurance that any lasting change will take place.
You can set to loving the people in your life and working hard in your part of God’s world with the confidence that one day, all God’s necessary changes will have been made!
Our 14 years of marriage are a small part of that beautiful story.
Abigail is a gift from God to bring me through those necessary changes toward that glorious day.
Marriage sanctifies us. Thank God Abi is a part of changing me!
God intends that we each play a part in the necessary changes on that path toward the New Creation.
Not only that, marriage strengthens us for service. Abigail and I get to be part of impacting others on this journey.
Our children are being shaped by God for that final day. Our family and church family are being formed and transformed by grace.
As God allows, we’re intent on seeing Lincoln Park and Downriver take part in a glorious future where all the necessary changes have been made.
Sinners are reconciled, Suffering is no more, Death has been defeated, and Jesus is Over Everything!
Here’s to another glorious year on the path to glory–Mutatis Mutandis!
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:42–44
57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:57–58
