To what lengths would you go to find a spouse? Helen Zhou, of Sydney, Australia, spent $3700 on a “Husband Wanted” billboard. She specified the age range (up to 45), financial and lifestyle qualifications, as well as the qualification that the prospective groom must have a good sense of humor. She said she was looking for a frugal man, “An old-fashioned kind of guy, not one who spends every cent and doesn’t worry about tomorrow” (World, November 6, 2004).

            I don’t know the outcome of Miss Zhou’s advertising campaign. Perhaps this is “the wave of the future” in finding a spouse. Although it seems strange (and expensive), it is probably no worse a method than those that most people use today to find a spouse.

            I found it striking that with all of the specific qualifications that Miss Zhou set out, there were none with a spiritual dimension, when that is the most important factor that she should be considering. She did say that she wanted an “old fashioned kind of guy,” one who “doesn’t worry about tomorrow.” But what kind of tomorrow will there be for the man who is outside of Christ?

            Marriage is God’s idea, not man’s. As God looked down on the first man and woman in the garden, it was God who brought them together. “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Notice that a man cleaves to his wife.

            Paul tells wives, “submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). How can a wife do this if she does not know the Lord? He tells the husbands, “love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25). How can a husband do this if he has not obeyed Christ?

            “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1).