God Gives Them A Family

“Will you still need me/will you still need me/when I’m sixty-four?” When a certain university chaplain first listened to this song on the “Sergeant Pepper” record, his ears perked up and his foot started stomping. He heard it not only as a catchy tune but also as a lyrical celebration of marriage and family life. Joyously, he conjured up thoughts of married couples living together down through the years and respecting one another, loving one another as persons ever more deeply, and still needing one another at age sixty-four. Then, in a sermon he gave in the university chapel, he used the song to illustrate the goodness of family life. It was a big mistake. The students responded with uproarious laughter. Later, they told him the reason for their amusement. “The Beatles didn’t intend this as a ‘straight’ song,” they said. “And if you think of it as a celebration of marriage and family life, it only proves how square you are. The song was…