A Good Wife Is Like an Island - Husband's Devotional

I recently read the biography of Samuel Zwemer, missionary to Iraq/Bahrain/Arabia/Egypt. He was blessed with a faithful and helpful wife, Amy, for four decades. On the occasion of her death he wrote a beautiful poem comparing her love to an island in the vast sea of life. At the outset I thought it was cliché and—while touching—just another phrase that meant little…but then Samuel compared the island of her love to a haven, and I had to read it again.

Her love was like an island
In life’s ocean vast and wide
A peaceful quiet shelter
from the wind and rain and tide 

‘Twas bound on the North by Hope
By Patience on the West
By Tender Counsel on the South
On the East I rest 

Above it, like a beacon light
Shone faith and truth and prayer
And through the changing scenes of life
I found a haven there.

I read his homage on an airplane as we were banking over the coast of Texas/Louisiana, and I had a beautiful view of the barrier islands there. It made me think of the many varieties of islands in the world. Some are trivial and can be easily inundated by the tides or the storms of life, others are completely inhospitable. I was reminded of the hideous island in William Golding’s book, The Pincher Martin, with its razor-sharp rocks, poisonous water, and treacherous crevasses. I thought of Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean, inhabited by a murderous people who have no patience to tolerate any outsiders on their beaches.

But then I thought of some of the fantastic islands of the world, such as the one in Goldings’s book, The Lord of the Flies, or the Hawaiian Islands, or Nantucket & Martha’s Vineyard which stand firm and provide ample protection against the winds and the waves—you might call them paradise, even, as many have.

It made me think of my relationship with my wife. If she’s honest would she call me a haven or a peril? Does she find safety and resoluteness against the world’s upheaval or does she find the ground shifting, unpredictable, and unstable?

Is she my help as I journey through life’s sorrows and as sea billows roll? Do we encourage each other to rest on the anchor of Christ and his Word together, and thus find solid footing, a firm foundation, amidst the crashing waves and hurtling wind together?

The Proverbs are clear that there are spouses who are worse than no spouse at all. *Spoiler Alert* The Pincher Martin makes this point startlingly well when you realize the nightmare that the main character experienced for months was all an illusion, and that the man had—in fact—died in the shipwreck. */End Spoiler Alert/* Reading that book as a young man rocked me to the core: which was preferred, death or a hellish salvation?

Samuel Zwemer turned that epiphany towards Heaven. Am I a paradise to my wife and she to me? Or would we have been better off to drift through this life alone?

Along the same lines, Jimmy Buffet wrote something very profound when he spoke of One Particular Harbor, a place of peace, tranquility, and contentedness. For many in this world that harbor is a literal place, a favorite beach, locale, real-estate, house, or property. Before becoming a Christian I referred to both my car, and my motorcycle, as “My1Hrbr”, and went so far as to request that vanity license plate (it was taken). But beloved, how much better is that harbor when it is a person—the wife of your youth, her alone—you blessed in her companionship, and her secure in yours?

I am resolved to provide that haven for my wife, to be a safe and hospitable island for her, and to serve Jesus with her and encourage her to continue resting on Christ the solid rock. His anchor holds within the veil, and I thank God for this opportunity to serve him with my wife, my one particular harbor.

Lord, May we together make the name of Jesus famous like Samuel and Amy Zwemer. Amen.