As a newly ordained clergyman who happens to be married, I find the challenge of balancing family, faith and work sometimes daunting. I told someone this week that I feel like the plate spinner on the “Ed Sullivan Show”: trying to keep all the plates on their wobbly poles without anything smashing to the floor.

So it’s been interesting, and enlightening, to read about the marriage of Billy and Ruth Graham. Ruth died earlier this week. And David Kuo has provided a nice remembrance and appreciation over at Beliefnet.

What is so striking about the Grahams is how singularly different they are from most public Christian figures. There have never been any financial scandals. Nor have there been allegations of womanizing on his part or affairs on her part. Yes, there have been dark periods in their lives – particularly when Billy got too deeply involved in politics…involved in a way that compromised his ministry. But even those sins seemed acceptable, human, and haven’t ever stuck to the Grahams. Alone among Christian leaders the Grahams are liked by the majority of Americans. .

That is both remarkable and sad. It is remarkable because they have managed to live the kind of life that Jesus commands. Theirs is a life marked by the kindness and unconditional love Paul writes about. It is sad because they are so unique. They really aren’t extraordinary Christians, they are ordinary ones. It is just that the rest of us are so far from ordinary. We are still very much under construction.

It’s good to be reminded from time to time of the marriages that endure, of the partnerships that prevail, and of the daily construction work that goes into building a marriage that is not only a relationship…but also a sacrament.