Providence is one of the hardest concepts to understand in the Bible, yet it is taught, without any doubt. When Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, they did not have anything in mind other than ridding themselves of a "nuisance" and making a little extra money. Though Joseph handled the situation very well, working in Potiphar's house, rising to importance in prison and eventually coming to be second in the kingdom, he did not -- at the moment his brothers sold him -- have a grand plan for saving his brothers from a future famine.

But after all of these things had passed and Joseph could look back on it all, he told his brothers, "Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life" (Genesis 45:5). Joseph did not mean to excuse the wrong that his brothers committed, but he did see the bigger picture -- that events had turned out well in the long run, despite what had appeared to be a situation from which nothing good could come.

Providence does not interfere with nature. It is God using natural means to accomplish his will. Though we can never know for sure when something is providential, even in hindsight, we should always look back upon events to see the good that came from them instead of dwelling on the bad.

There is something extra special about happily married couples. I do not refer simply to their longevity together but to that they truly belong together. Many of us have seen the beauty of couples who are rarely seen apart and who look out of place if they are apart. God designed marriage to be just like that, so that two people will grow closer together throughout their lives, that they will learn to depend on one another, and that through this "togetherness" they will have a home in the truest sense rather than only on paper or in the mundane chores of daily living.

After God performed the first "wedding ceremony," Moses records, "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:23-24). God intended marriage to foster togetherness, to build interdependency and to create the proper environment of unity for training children. Many couples fill their lives with so many things that they forget to fill their lives with God and one another, but this is what marriage is supposed to be about.