Last week, we saw it finally happen: Travis Kelce kneeling down to ask Taylor Swift to marry him. Taylor is no longer the tragic star of Romeo and Juliet or The Scarlet Letter. It’s a love story, and she said, “yes.” The critics have come out in full swarm, and the fans are thrilled.

Despite a culture that hates white men and elevates angry feminists who have done their best to obliterate the patriarchy, marriage isn’t dead. And it isn’t bad. We love this story because marriage echoes the greatest story of all time.

God created a people and gathered them into His church, “the bride of Christ,” and throughout the ages, the Church has been anything but faithful. Anything but capable of keeping its end of the marriage covenant. Yet despite that, Christ humbled himself on earth, pursued His bride, called her back, paid the debt she could never pay and will return at the end of time for her for the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Every romance retells this tale in some form.

Look at the iconic movie, Forrest Gump. Throughout the story you have Forrest, a guy who doesn’t have quite the IQ for success in life, or does he? His childhood friend Jenny, the smart one, wanders the world. Despite his many adventures, Forrest is never drifting. He’s the grounded good guy who takes the wild girl back over and over to the very end.

Can we forget the Princess Bride? Inconceivable. Wesley fights pirates and scales cliffs to find his true love, the prince killed every rodent of unusual size, metaphorical and not, to get to his bride.

Marriage is no human created institution. It is God’s good design for human flourishing, a picture of His love for His people. In the very first chapters of the Bible, God tells us, “It is not good for man to be alone.” To correct this aloneness, God created not just a friend, but a lifelong partner to cultivate the garden and extend it to the ends of the earth.

More than that, marriage reflects the permanent union and affection of God Himself bound up in the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. No other earthly institution more intimately reveals God’s love.

Is it any wonder then that on average married people are actually happier, richer and experience fewer hardships than those who are not? In other words, “falling marriage rates are a chief reason why happiness has declined nationally.” Taylor may not agree with the cosmic reality, but she gets it at a visceral level with nearly a third of her songs written about relationships and a desire to say “yes” to her own love story.

Marriage isn’t dead. It’s scriptural and timeless. Desiring it is innately normal and good, just like Taylor Swift, and that innate desire comes from the perfect parallel of heaven—of Jesus and His bride.
So, what’s there to learn here?

The longing to get married is a beautiful and holy thing. We shouldn’t feel shamed or sidelined for wanting this picture of heaven to play out in our lives. When we start to hide our desire for marriage, we either make it a secret idol within our hearts, villainize something that God calls good, or do both at the same time.

Instead of feeling shame about the desire to get married, embrace it. Ask God for this beautiful gift and welcome the idea that a Godly marriage is in fact God’s good and normative design for human flourishing, one of the best gifts in life.

Let’s celebrate the fact that even through Taylor Swift’s story, God can teach us something about the sanctity and hope of marriage—reminding us all of the truest and best love story the world has ever known.

Article written by Susannah Johnston. Susannah is Chief of Staff to the President of Communio, a nonprofit organization that equips churches to promote healthy relationships, marriages and the family. A former investigative journalist and hill staffer, she lives in northern Virginia where she attends McLean Presbyterian and plays pickleball in her free time.