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31st Day of Lent: Seeing God's Heart for Order in Marriage

And the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." . . . So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib (side) he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. (Gen 2:18, 21 22)


​Ever wonder why God did it that way?

​"​Why create one being and then take a part of that being and create a second, differentiated yet "bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh," a being who is sexually, emotionally and in other ways different, yet of his own substance? 

Upon seeing her, Adam could have observed, "It's me . . . but not me." 


Well, if you think about it, it does sound like the kind of thing you might expect a Trinity to do.


The Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) is a family, and thus man in God's image must be made a family as well. 


​In this order, humans cannot completely realize the essence of their existence until humanity learns to exist with someone and for someone.

Both relationship and communion are crucial to this process.


Because woman was originally a constituent part of man, she must return to become one with him again, so that the full expression and design of God's image in human beings can be revealed.

Ah, but there's more to this mystery than can be seen on the surface. The union of a man and a woman in​ ​marriage is not literally the permanent recombining of two bodies into one. 

This is mystery that reaches depths of meaning beyond what our present intellectual capacity can grasp.


Clearly however, what woman is as a part of man is not tied to individuated pieces of flesh and bone, but is far broader and more profound than that. 


She is the necessary other half to him that together reveals the glory of the image of God in humanity. 

​Marriage represents God's divine ORDER of love​ ​​as God exists in Trinity, three persons in one.

In marriage, her parts and his parts each have their own order and function. Together and rightly ordered, their united differences ignite the power and glory of creation itself, which is the consummate activity of God from the beginning.


And the spark, the power of that union is meant to gloriously reveal the very image of God to angels and archangels and all the company of heaven and earth. 


That is why Satan fights tooth and nail to pervert and distort God's divine order for marriage.


In fact, the amount of time and effort that Satan expends to destroy the image of God reflected in marriages is a barometer of just how incredibly important it is to God's plan and the expression of His glory.


Beloved, there is a profound and awesome reason for the way God ordered the creation of man." Excerpted from David Kyle Foster, The Divine Order of Marriage


We must not let Satan and the world  have the victory in distorting and destroying the sacred ordered relationship between men and women--


In a world all too fraught with ego and control, power struggles, conflict and divorce, we would do well to remember that in the Trinity, 


"God self-empties before the other can then fill the empty space. 


The Father pours love into the Son; the Son pours love into the Spirit; the Spirit pours love into the Father. 


Each is emptied and ready to receive the other's love." -Richard Rohr


Trinity is the foundational template for all true love...the emptying of ourselves to allow the other to fill the empty space- and back and forth in a never ending loop of infinite love. 


This is the divinely ordered template for marriage and rightly ordered relationships among others. 


Oh the mystery and wonder and gratitude for each moment of the Trinity's love for all of us!  


Prayer:  Abba Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit,  help me to more deeply understand each moment as an opportunity to empty myself to love my spouse today like (s)he's never been loved before. How can I love others the way that they have never been loved before? What act of love can I give to another today that will open the pathway to your infinite loop of love?  🙏🏻


Posted by Kimberly 

Written by Lyn Woodruff for The River Prayer Reflections texting group

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