Apply Some Playful Glue
Apply Some Playful Glue by Pastor Tim
Soul Food: Abiding Savior Lutheran Killeen, TX
June, 2021
“My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies” (Song of Songs 2:16).
Mike and Lynn married before money but had what money can’t buy - playful glue. Mike had a Mcgyver quality to him, always inventing from scratch. Lynn called him her “Renaissance Man.” Equally creative Lynn loved spontaneity. Both spelled fun with a capital “F.”
Lynn would hang the wash on a line outside before they could afford a dryer. One day as she pinned one of Michael’s business shirts to the line, for good measure, she pinned an extra clothespin to his shirttail. Mike wore UNTUCKit shirts, so in the rush to work he wore his shirt out the door clothespin dangling behind. A phone call would surely ensue but none came.
At Michael’s Christmas party that year a high powered business executive approached Lynn and asked, “Lose something?” as he handed her a clothespin he’d detached from the back of her suit coat. Talk about embarrassing! Renaissance Man had struck. However, revenge for Lynn was even sweeter.
A week later Mike was beaming with pride as he walked down the church aisle as the newly elected head usher on a glorious Sunday morning. Guess what was dangling noticeably from the back of his suit coat as he received the offering plates from the Pastor? A cluster of snickers and smirks wisped across the congregation.
Over the course of thirty years now that clothes pin has made its way into many locations: purses, bras, sports bags, tackle boxes, wedding tuxedos, even on a master’s graduation cap of Mike’s. It’s all in playful fun and Mike and Lynn even refer to it now as their “close” pin.
When is the last time you have applied some playful glue to your marriage? One of the strangest and most enchanting gifts God has given us is flirtation. Never stop flirting with your spouse - never. Stop flirting as a self-absorbed player outside the covenant of marriage and always invest in this playful glue in your own and you will be blessed.
Flirting (in non-annoying ways men) is playful glue that pays attention. Love pays attention. Jesus never stops paying attention to you as the “with us God.” He is ever the creative lover in painted skies, sacraments, people, and his Word in always saying, “I love you.”
No, Jesus doesn’t flirt but plenty of playful glue is applied by him in his relationship with us his bride all in light of the joy of sins forgiven. So living loved by him apply playful glue in your marriage in what may be called flirtation or having a happy sense of play in your relationship. You watch, if you keep at this you will even generate a unique laughter that signals to each other and the world an exclusive love. But how?
Here’s a bit of gold from G. K. Chesterton: “In order for romance to deepen, you must touch the heart and mind of your spouse before you touch their body.” Use a clothespin, a text, a gift, a surprise, whatever but this is a truth that can change your marriage. Too often, especially we men, reverse the order, don’t we? We want to touch the body and expect our partner to respond. But few things kindle romance in a marriage like a spouse who knows how to touch the heart and mind of their lover before they touch the body.
Notice how Solomon does this with words. Yes, it’s flowery and maybe a bit over the top but in the end the lovers in Song of Songs are simply speaking their love to each other. Aren’t they really flirting creatively with words? “He - How beautiful you are, my darling! Your eyes are doves. 16 - She - How handsome you are, my lover! Oh, how charming! And our bed is verdant (Song of Songs 1:15-16). You’re smiling I know, if not laughing, but I laid that one on my wife in a role play challenge last night and we found playful glue at the end of a busy day. Besides, who wouldn’t want a verdant bed!?
Promise your spouse a Proverb a night on a paper plate, leave a love note in her sandwich, or make your own close pin connection but whatever you do don’t stop having fun with the one you love so dearly. Groucho Marx wryly once said, “Marriage is like pantyhose, it’s all what you put into it.” Entirely true? No. But there’s a lot to that. Put a lot of playful glue in yours.