now GOD brought eve into adam’s life and some incredible things happen. genesis 2 verses 19 & 20 says, HE brought them [animals] to the man to see what he would name them… but for adam, no suitable helper was found.
by the way, do you think that GOD thought that an aardvark was going to meet the need of loneliness in adam’s life? GOD knew what HE was going to do. HE just brought all the animals by just to teach adam that HE had a need that could only be met in one way. GOD says, “go to sleep, adam.” and HE takes a rib out and creates a woman. just think: aardvarks and elephants have been parading in front of adam. when he wakes up he sees a woman. what does he say? verse 23 (niv), he says, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!
now this is not a good dating line, guys. but in the hebrew language it’s a phrase that’s filled with exclamation points. it’s a phrase that says, “wow! incredible! look what GOD has done!” for me it says, “margaret!”
there are two words i want to give to you that i believe can energize any marriage. they come from this first marriage, where GOD created man and woman. the two words that i need in my marriage or you need in your marriage or, if you’re not married yet, the two words you’re going to need in that relationship if GOD chooses to do that in your life – “wonder” and “oneness”.
“wonder”. bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. never lose the wonder of the fact that GOD has brought a person into your life to complete you. if you’re like margaret and i sometimes that sense of completion becomes a sense of competition. we’re different. we don’t see things the same way but as long as the wonder stays there. and have you discovered that you have to work at the wonder sometimes? you have to work at the wow! as long as the wonder stays there, there’s an energizing power from GOD in our relationship.
the second word is “oneness”. GOD goes on to say to adam and eve – the first lesson in all of the bible – genesis 2.24-25 (niv), for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall be one flesh. and the man and his wife were both naked and they felt no shame.
in our society, even when i read that verse, i feel a little bit of shame. but he’s just talking about the perfect oneness that only GOD can create. it’s not just physical, but SPIRItual, emotional. that’s what GOD’s able to do. if you’re married, even if you’re struggling in a marriage, you still feel the oneness. even in the midst of struggle there’s the oneness there. that’s why it hurts so much because the oneness is real.
when i hold on to the wonder and build on to the oneness in the relationship, that has the power to energize any marriage. i'm not just giving you two words as a simple answer. some of you need in your relationship some real in-depth help. i don’t want to minimize that. but i want to encourage you to go back to the beginning and build on the simple foundations GOD gave us. start there. what a great place to start, where GOD started things – wonder and oneness.
just a thought from the front porch…
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