Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
My wife Jenny and I have been married for over 35 years. How does one explain that? The explanation is in the Hebrew understanding of the word for "one" used in the above verse. Here is the word picture meaning: "to strongly fence the door". On the day of our 35th wedding anniversary this is what our daughter posted on Facebook: "Happy 35th Wedding Anniversary life-givers! You two truly set the example for how to love! I appreciate how much grace you show each other, and the amount of time, effort and care you've put into making your relationship so strong over the years, and providing such a solid foundation for our family. I couldn't imagine a better match. Love you both tons and tons xoxo" Our daughter opened my eyes to something I had not realised. When Jenny and I were married we both established grace as the foundation of our marriage. As you have heard me share before in Hebrew grace= "a fence that protects life". So here in lies the secret. By becoming one flesh Jenny and I stepped into an expression of grace. Grace has protected our marriage from any outside intruders. Also, grace has "strongly fenced the door" that we could have potentially used to exit our relationship. From our perspective there has never been a door to exit via because it has been covered by grace, or to put it more strongly that door has been barricaded from the inside of our relationship with grace; a fence that has literally protected the life of our relationship. Listen to the words of Yeshua: "Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are."(John 17:11) This oneness, this grace is not restricted to the marriage relationship alone; clearly it was Yeshua's heart that all our relationships should be based on this level of unity and oneness. I encourage you in all your relationships to foster grace and in so doing you will barricade that door from the inside that might otherwise tempt you to exit the relationship. We often say to one another "build a bridge" when a relationship comes under threat. But then the question is who in the relationship is going to walk over that bridge to reconcile the relationship. Would it not be far wiser to "build a fence" one that protects both you and your friend inside your relationship? This my friends is where true unity starts and finishes.
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