community, church life, and marriage

About the church and marriage painting project; I myself have been married for a very, very long time.  Reflecting on the subject within the worship theme, the image of love and marriage could be represented by the larger community that nourishes and upholds a married couple.
The climbing and twining vine that is much stronger than each individual growing stem represents to me a more true visual of what happens in a strong Christian marriage.

         (detail of art displayed at Church of the Resurrection )

As I reflected on marriage and life in the church the image of that climbing vine which is now embracing my flower garden became the compelling visual metaphor. It is beautiful, and it is strong, (just try pulling it out.)
Chains do not hold a marriage together.  It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years.  ~Simone Signoret  

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939, translated from French by Lewis Galantière 

Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family to live all by itself in a box the way we do.  With no relatives, no support, we've put it in an impossible situation.  ~Margaret Mead 

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.  ~Frederick Buechner