Getting caught in the crossfire of divorce has wounded many people. Your life may be a mess because of divorce. You may have a father you don’t know because of the divorce. You may have a mother you don’t understand because of the divorce. You may have had really bad Christmases because of a divorce and really complicated family vacations. You may even say, “I’m never going to get married.” But you don’t have to bear the pain for somebody else’s mistake.

Jesus died on the cross once. There’s no need for you to do it again.

Sure, the ultimate and divine purpose of marriage is “until death do us part.” But we’re human, and humans mess up. Our failures need not be fatal. Christ has given us a way through this. First, He has restored the sanctity of marriage. Second, through His Spirit, He gives us the grace to live lovingly in a marriage. Through His grace and mercy, He gives us a way to live through our failures. Forgiven and a little wiser, we can move on. Our God is great enough to take the messes of our lives and do something beautiful with them. He’s that good of a God.

Yes, divorce happens, and yes divorce is a failure, but the grace of God means that our failures or the failure of our parents’ relationship won’t have the last word in our lives. Grace has the last word. It always does.