For This Reason…

This week my Beloved and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary. All week long I will be including posts about marriage.

It began long before we were born, this thing called marriage. It began when God created woman for the man so that man would have a suitable companion, a helpmeet; 1 man, 1 woman, she FOR him. There is no philosophy of man than can explain the reason for family. For this reason… Because God designed it to be such.

 Genesis 2:18-24
^“18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” ¹⁹ Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
²¹ And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. ²² Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
²³ And Adam said:

How amazing that not only did God lovingly create a universe fit for man to live in, then loving create the man, but also lovingly create a suitable helpmeet for him, a companion a woman to help him in his life. He could have made it possible for Adam to procreate with animals. But HE knew that it wasn’t right. HE knew that man needed a suitable mate. And from Man, woman was created. For this reason…Because God designed it to be such.

God desired for man and woman to come together in marriage. To procreate, to help each other and to fulfill their purpose, the purpose of every man. To have a loving desire to return to their creator and choose to lovingly serve Him in faithfulness. For this reason… God designed it to be such.

Along the path of man’s history, man made choices which were outside of the scope of God’s original design. Man, chose ways which were not pleasing to God. Man chose to have many wives, man chose to divorce wives, man chose to have other men instead of wives. All of these choices were displeasing to God.

When asked by the Pharisees, a hypocritical group of religious Jews, if men could give their wives divorce for any reason. Jesus responded this way…

Matthew 19:5-6
^“5 and said,‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

God designed marriage. As creator He has every right to determine the right path for His creation. For this reason… God designed it to be such. A man shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. For this reason… God designed it to be such, they are no longer 2 but 1. Let not man separate what God has joined together. For this reason… God designed it to be such.

We are 1 my beloved and I. We have been joined together by God. We stand united in marriage and in spirit through Christ. One. For this reason… God designed it to be such.

We stood that day and declared with a vow that we would love, honor, cherish, remain faithful until parted by death. Let not man separate. For this reason… Because God designed it to be such.

I love my beloved more faithfully and with more conviction than I did on that day. That day, I was a young girl. I knew love from a young girl perspective. Today, I love with a perspective of love that has been tried by fire, Refined by the Great Refiner. Today, I love with an abiding love, that understands that love is not temporary or found only in a moment of happiness, but is found in every moment, whether happy or sad, bitter or sweet. Love is constant when we choose it to be. Love is the effort we put forth to show the other person that we desire to see their greatest good above our own. Love is not temporal but love is eternal. For this reason… God designed it to be such.