If you are willing to stand up in front of your friends and family and God and commit yourself to another human being, to give yourself in that kind of partnership, for better or worse, in sickness and health — honey, that is a marriage, that is real, and that's all that matters.
My question is, if marriage is a promise we make to another human being, and God is be expected to attend, bless and congratulate the parties involved, would God still be there when the relationship dulls and the husband loses his job and the wife is demented and the unmarried teenager is pregnant?
Hence, if He would condescend attending all of that, would He also attend when we make promises to readers and dishes and the expired driver's licenses? Would His presence make a difference on the boring part of the promises we have made?
What Difference Would It Make?
Unfortunately, aside from being the prodder that parents and muftis and advertisers poke us with, the idea of a God has made things more complicated than simple. And it's a shame, because I'm pretty sure that He didn't send us here just to celebrate the happy events, when we have friends and family to show for, then bail out when things turn sour like the rest of them.
In fact, if He does exist, He would be the first to attend "the worse" and "in sickness" part of our deals. And it is for that kind of attendance, (recognizable when the work is so familiar that it flows smooth and it doesn't matter whom we're showing for,) that makes doing the dishes (again) worthwhile and that's all that matters.
For, it is through commitments that are repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly kept, especially when things suck, that His presence is the sweetest and humanity can achieve its very best.
Or worst.
