Circus Act - Katharina Von Bora

1499–1552

On one occasion, the volatile Martin Luther shut himself in his den for three days, trying to get away from the activity of his bustling home. He and his wife, Katie, lived in a renovated monastery, appropriate for this former monk and former nun. They had six children of their own, and they had welcomed several nieces and nephews to live with them, as well as children of other friends who were going through rough times. Katie invited some of her female relatives to come and help with nannying all these kids. And of course there were regular students and visitors who traveled from afar to learn from the famous reformer.

This wasn’t a home; it was a circus.

You can hardly blame Martin for seeking solitude in his den, but for three days? Katie was incensed. Sure, he needed to study, but he was shirking his responsibilities to the rest of the household . . . and to her.

So she had the den door removed.

This is a fitting picture of their relationship. Single until he was forty-one, Martin seemed set in his bachelor ways. When he married Katie, it was more of a business deal than anything. “I’m not madly in love,” he told a friend, “but I cherish her.” In a way, his sense of romantic love was walled off, shut away.

But through the years of their contentious relationship, in her no-nonsense way, Katie managed to remove the locked door of his heart. She taught him to love her.

Martin once wrote about Jesus’ first miracle, turning water to wine at the wedding in Cana. He considered it an apt description of marriage. “The first love is drunken. When the intoxication wears off, then comes the real married love.” Maybe the Luthers never experienced that first “drunken” love, but they certainly grew into the latter love. “I will not take the vexation out of marriage,” Martin wrote. “I may even increase it, but it will turn out wonderfully.” As it was in Cana, the best was saved for last.

What sort of door needs to be removed in your life?

“A host always serves the best wine first. . . . But you have kept the best until now!” This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

John 2:10-11