Love Can Grow

One of Jeannette Oke's most popular books is called Love Comes Softly .  It is about a man and woman out west in the pioneer days who both lose their spouses.  Because the man has a daughter and needs help with her,  he enters into a marriage of convenience with the widow.  In spite of the immoral arrangement (they agree the marriage be temporary and not include the marriage bed), it is very sweet to see the lady slowly grow to love the man.   When the time for the agreed upon departure comes, she is most unhappy to go....

Rebecca Van Doodewaard in her pithy, practical, wise book Your Future 'Other Half" It matters whom you marry  argues that a rational decision to marry does not preclude love.  She gives two fine examples:

Martin Luther, famous for being madly in love with his 'lord Katie',wrote years after his wedding that he did not love his wife at the start of their marriage: 'That came later.'

Ann Judson, in her diary and letters, indicates that she agreed to marry her husband not because he was madly in love, but so that she could bring the gospel to women overseas.After the wedding, she grew deeply attached to her husband, who had loved her from the beginning.  

The very first marriage on earth was an arranged one. 

Love can grow --especially where Christian grace is present --and it would be well for us to be a more matter of fact and less hung up on the Hollywood requirement that being swept off one's feet is an essential ingredient for getting married.