Community, Marriage, and Kids: Signs of Life

One thing that I will always cherish about my time at the Universi-

ty of St. Andrews is my experience of community among the Divin-
ity postgraduate students and their families.Before I arrived in St.
Andrews, I expected that I would be alone, isolated, and complete-
ly absorbed in my research.

But it has not been like that at all. Not only have I been enriched
by the women and men who were my fellow doctoral students,but
I have been blessed by their husbands or wives, and children. I
do not think that I would have recovered so well from my heart
surgery two and a half years ago if I had not had the support of
this community. I am so grateful to the Lord for bringing them in-
to my life the past five years. They (as well as others from through-
out my life) have enriched me in so many ways.

In this small community of expat postgraduate students and their

families I have also witnessed husbands and wives who take their
marital vows seriously and who make living out those vows a pri-
ority in their lives together. This is done in the face of great aca-
demic pressure. In spite of the vast majority of my colleagues be-
ing married, I have been affirmed in my singleness. I only hope
that my singleness encourages other singles and affirms the rela-
tionships of those who are married.

It thrills my heart to see couples taking marriage seriously, espe-
cially n the Western world where marriage is rarely respected or
affirmed. In the face of this tragic degradation of marriage stands
the uplifting of the beauty of marriage. It reflects the way that
God created women and men for one another.

But what strikes me most is the explosive number of births of chil-
dren among University postgrad families, especially those from the
US and Canada. I have seen so many couples come here without
children and leave with at least the firstborn and one completed
doctoral thesis. Others return to the US with one or two more chil-
dren than when they first came to St. Andrews.

Earlier in the month a group of St. Mary's Postgraduate families
and friends gathered together to say farewell to a family return-
ing to Arizona. I was amazed at the presence of two newborns, one
infant less than a year old, and a large group of children bouncing
off the walls and running and screaming outside on the lawn.

Also attending the farewell gathering was a friend, a PhD student
in Old Testament studies, who was there with her husband. She
looked as if she would give birth to her firstborn well before deliv-
ering her doctoral thesis to the university. I was reminded of how
much life there is in this community at the university. I have missed
seeing that ever since I left St. Andrews nearly a year ago. It stands
in sharp contrast to the larger society that does not tend to value
children and family.

I firmly believe that life in community, the quality of marriages, and
the abundance of children are signs of new life that only Jesus Christ
can give. In a truly dark world, only Jesus brings life and light.

Blessings and all the best to you and yours,