Husband of the Daughter of the King

O God, how could You be so good to me? You are extravagant beyond all reason. Lying here beside me now, she glows in Your reflected light. Your holy peace rests on her closed eyelids. She radiates Your divine goodness even as she sleeps. Are you dancing with her in her dreams, Lord God, like you walked with Your children in the garden? 

This divine joy You have poured into her heart overflows to bless the world, but it blesses me first of all. She is a fountain of joy that you fill to water a parched earth. She is a sacred vessel in Your service, and yet You, extravagantly, permit me to bathe in her.

I love the way You love her. Your presence in her life is obvious. Your gentle, healing hand upon her heart is beautiful to see. You bless her with abundant life, and You satisfy her every need.

Lying here asleep she looks so delicate, powerless, fragile. But I know it is an illusion. In a few minutes she will wake, and you will array her again in her breastplate of righteousness and her belt of truth. In one hand she will take up the shield of her unwavering faith in Your divine goodness, and in her other hand you will place again the Spirit of the Living God, and any forces of darkness that may have been lurking in the shadows will draw back at the awesome sight of her.

She will sit up on the edge of the bed and wipe the sleep from her eyes. She will yawn and stretch and her hair will fall gracefully on her shoulders, and You will place upon her lovely head her helmet of salvation. And I will rest assured that no matter what the Father of Lies hurls at her today, she will be divinely protected from any mortal blow.

And thus armed by the Lord of Hosts, this mighty warrior in Your Kingdom will devote herself today to raising my children. She will put Your praises on their lips, and she will show them the abundant life that is found only in You, and she will reveal to them the face of a good and loving and compassionate God.

I have come to know You as Father, as Friend, as Lord, as Teacher. But as husband of Your precious daughter, I am also coming to know You as Father-in-Law. However close she and I may grow in our marriage, there will always be a relationship she has with You alone that I cannot enter. She has needs and desires that only You can meet, and that is just as it should be. 

You are her perfect Heavenly Father. You know me fully, and in spite of this You have still seen fit to entrust her to my care. You have given me a charge of high honor: to serve as the husband of the daughter of the King of the universe. O God, take me and use me however You please to reflect in human form Your divine love for her. Use my arms to hold her, and use my lips to encourage her. Give me the strength to ride courageously beside her in battle and to treat her every day like a daughter of the King.

Amen