Is marriage becoming obsolete? Not if God's people first treasure the marriage we have to Jesus, our heavenly Bridegroom.

Technology continues to change almost daily. What was cutting edge only weeks back quickly grows obsolete. When I began serving as a campus minister in 2000, nearly all dorm students had landline phones connected in their dorm rooms. In 2010 nearly every college student has a cell phone. As cell phone technology advances, landline phones have become, some say, obsolete.

If you Google (search the Internet for) "obsolete items," you will find the landline phone has joined a list called "Things that have grown obsolete in the past ten years." Fax machines, classifieds in the newspaper, film cameras, dial up Internet, handwritten letters, and even encyclopedias also comprise that list.

Does that shock you? Probably not—especially when one considers that the LPs (Long-Play records) were replaced with cassette tapes (beating out 8-track) only to give way to CDs. By the way, with online and digital music, even CDs are being dubbed obsolete.

But did you raise your eyebrows around Thanksgiving when you read in or heard on the news that nearly 40 percent say marriage is becoming obsolete. That USA Today headline was referencing a report released by the Pew Research Center on Nov. 18, 2010. The complete 100-plus page report is titled "The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families."

Marriage obsolete?

Skimming the report reveals that 39 percent of those surveyed stated that marriage is becoming obsolete—up from 28 percent of those who said yes in 1978. When we break down the respondents by categories, we learn that 62 percent of unmarried parents who are living with a partner concur that marriage is obsolete. Not surprising; otherwise they would be married.

Other statistics worth noting from the report include:

• In 1960, 87 percent of children were living with married parents compared to 64 percent today.

• In 2008, 52 percent of adults in our country were married compared to 72 percent in 1960.

• Forty-one percent of babies were born to unmarried moms in 2008, an eightfold increase from 50 years ago.

• Twenty-five percent of kids lived in a single-parent home, almost triple the number from 1960.

Hmmm! We reap what we sow.