Saturday, March 27, 2010

March 27, 2010

"If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? " Ecclesiates 4:10-11
Upon the completion of His creative masterpiece, God stood at the edge of Eden and scanned the birds overhead, the trees and flowering plants, the magnificent animals, and declared, "It is good!"
Talk about understatement! How about perfect?
Not quite!
So, what was not perfect about creation?
God stood with Adam and as all the animals filed past them Adam pronounced names for them. Adam must have noticed that the animals were passing him in pairs. God noticed, too. Because not long after proclaiming that creation was good, God declared it was not good. "It is not good that man should be alone!"
Even in the presence of God in the environment of Paradise, man was incomplete. So God did a little reconstructive surgery and from the flesh and bone of man He created "wo-man", as Adam named her.
God's perfect plan is for a man and a woman to complete one another. That is the essence of "oneness". Two people who have each become complete in God merge their lives and submit their wills and united their purpose in order to maximize their existence and glorify their Creator.
There are those who are called to single living. Some choose a life of celibacy to better serve God. Certainly that decsion is to be admired and honored. But for most, marriage is the model.
It is through striving to bring completeness to another person you discover the necessary disciplines of humility, surrender, submission, service, and sacrifice. Those are precisely the virtues needed to find oneness with God. So the Creator in His omniscence understood that marriage could serve as the perfect laboratory for the great experiment of pleasing God.
No wonder the next verse in this section of Ecclesiates says this: "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."
Here is the truth about relationships. Whenever two people come together to share life in an intimate setting one of two things will happen, either they will complete or they will compete.
Which characterizes your marriage? What are you doing to complete your partner? Where can you submit or surrender oe sacrifice or serve? What will you change? How will you complete your loved one today?