It’s a federal holiday here in America in honor of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Despite his legacy being that we ought to be a people who judge people by character rather than skin pigmentation, few seem able to learn that fundamental wisdom. Ugly tribalism thrives among mob mentalities. In this postlapsarian world, I don’t think that will ever change for the undiscerning masses.

As a soldier, I, too, have a day off from work today to celebrate King’s legacy. He was by no means a perfect man. Scholarship has revealed that he was a philanderer and plagiarized much of his dissertation. As one who regularly has his words stolen, it is painful to endure. But each man will give an account one day. So, again, in this postlapsarian world, I do not anticipate a cessation of intellectual theft.

But I do not want to focus on King here or on tribalistic thinking or on intellectual theft. Rather, I want to write of waking up late this morning, of coming down the staircase, of hearing my wife practice “In Christ Alone” on the piano, and of what it means to have a God-fearing spouse.

It’s only Monday and she is already planning the piano pieces for next Lord’s Day. If you’re a Christian, and if you have a Christian spouse, there’s a benediction that you discover (if you pay attention). When I came down the stairs, she was printing off sheets of music, arranging parts for herself and other singers at church, and she asked me to record with her the melody and harmony lines in order that folks could hear their parts, based upon their registers.

I had a suspicion a quarter of a century ago when I proposed that marrying a sweet church girl from GA, a girl whose parents loved the Lord and served their church body, that I was making the right decision. Rather, it was that I discerned that God was making the decision for me in His provision of her in my life. That’s the hand of providence, dear ones.

But you have to have eyes to see that sort of thing. You have to be able to step out of tribalism, groupthink, and the mob mentality. You have to be quiet. If you are, you might hear the sounds of piano keys being played by your spouse’s slender fingers, and hear “In Christ Alone” as you awake and descend the stairwell for your morning coffee.