I remember the day when I was walking to my classroom and a young lady asked me if I had time for a personal question. Reasonably personal questions can be a challenge. I could've said, "I'm late for class. Catch me right after. Okay?"

But I figured she needed some help, so, "What's on your mind?"

She smiled, "When you get engaged, and someone gives you a ring, is that a contract?"

"Well, that's a yes and a no. It's more of a promise. The ring lets everyone who sees it know that you are pretty much on your way to a wedding. When you get married, you get another ring that is relatively plain. That one tells everyone that the two of you are legally husband and wife. Now comes the contract."

I was very certain that I explained that regardless of the ceremony, our society expects the wedding to be conducted by a recognized and licensed individual and the marriage document must be signed and properly filed at the courthouse.

I didn't have time to explain that all that stuff was a piece of cake. Reality came right after the "I do. So, help me God."

How old is the idea of marriage? I personally like Genesis 2:18, where this rather gangly clueless Adam is walking around all alone until God announces, "I will make a remarkable partner for him!"

Now comes the wonderful and extraordinary translation that I prefer, "Here is the one who completes him!"

Eve, a delight for his eyes, is not a servant, second-class citizen or trapped into submission because of her sex, but a soul mate and an equal.

By the way, these first ancestors were put together by God without rings, ceremony or contract. Unfortunately, they did not get a book of instructions, but they were given considerable free will, which has given us more problems than you can shake a stick at.

To digress just a tad, you ladies need to realize that God has given us men limited attention span, an uncanny sense of direction, as well as an impeccable taste in fashion coupled with an out of door fragrance much like the woodland creatures we hunt and eat. There are many, many more qualities I could mention, but male humility and humbleness keeps my ego in check.

In my classroom, students talked about how difficult it is to find someone that they could love, let alone share a lifetime together. I would tell them of the play, "Fiddler on the Roof." There is the conversation between Tevye and Golde, husband and wife. Their marriage had been arranged 25 years ago by the Match Maker, a lady in town, who decides which girl will marry which boy. (The class was not too happy about such an arrangement.) Now comes the lesson!

After 25 years, Tevye turns to Golde and asks, "Do you love me?"

"Do I what?"

"Golde, do you love me?"

"Tevye, for all these years, I have washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow. After all these years, why now?"

As in a Shakespearean play, she turns aside and tells the audience, "For 25 years, I've fought with him, starved with him, my bed is his. If that's not love, what is?"

She then turns to Tevye, "I suppose I do."

He replies, "I suppose I do, too."

Together, they say, "After 25 years, it's nice to know."

Folks, a marriage can be nothing more than a contract – binding, but unfulfilling – but a marriage with love, sharing, working and cherishing ... isn't it nice to know?

Julie and I were together 65 years. We were in love all those years. Isn't it nice to know? God was the Match Maker.

Thanks, God!