I sat down with a woman a few years after her husband’s affair. After recounting the pain and struggle, she told me about the healing and positive changes she had seen in her husband. Then I asked another couple this dangerous question: “Can you see any ways that the affair has made you stronger or closer than before?” He said, “Pretty much all of it.” She added, “He really, really wants to bring joy to me. And we really didn’t have that before.” Then I heard a similar story from another couple. They both went from complacent, lazy, me-first spouses to attentive, loving, you-first partners. These people are proof that there’s hope after an affair.
I know it doesn’t always happen that way. Jesus was honest about adultery’s ability to divide the “one flesh” that was made in marriage (Matthew 19:6). Sometimes the trust doesn’t return, and it is okay for a Christian to walk away. But I also know that when Jesus is at the center of it, when friends and family give grace and truth, when two people work and wait, miracles can happen. As an angel once said to a virgin who saw zero possibility of being a mother: “For no word from God will ever fail” (Luke 1:37).
Your almighty Father can bring beauty from these ashes. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow, but he can restore what sin has broken. Pray that every couple reeling from an affair can fix their eyes on the only One capable of doing impossible things.
