How Far to the Promised Land: One Black Family's Story of Hope and Survival in the American South

by Esau McCaulley

My marriage—and, more broadly, any interracial marriage—is not about racial reconciliation in America; that is too much weight for anyone to bear. We are not special; we are possible. Ours is like any marriage that lasts. We had to give up enough of ourselves to make room for the other person, but we had to retain a sufficient amount of who we were to avoid bitterness. All marriages become a third thing, neither one partner’s dream nor the other’s, but a different glory, an ordinary one we made together.

Patience with broken people and broken things is a manifestation of trust in God.