The Mystery of Marriage

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I wonder what the relevance of the Biblical template of marriage is in these times. As I write I am aware of failed marriages and gay marriages, and I do not doubt that we have all known pain, and that we have all found love, somewhere.
I am inspired by this Biblical verse in Ephesians 5:29-32
"For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."
And I also am inspired by Galatians 3:28 which says that in Christ there is neither male nor female, among other things.
Marriage is a mystery, seems to be the message for me.
I guess that the mystery of marriage is in how it works at all! I loved being single over 20 years ago, but it had to come to an end because of its own challenges. Once the decision was made, there came the question of whom to marry. Of the limited options that were presented to me, there was only one answer!
There is good in Andrew, and that is why I chose him. And I am happy to say that he was happy to be chosen, at the time! And yet I go through days of negative emotions about what we have built together. Somehow we get through those days, and we are still together. That is the mystery. And so two decades have passed, and that in itself is an achievement! Every time I think about the years we have spent together, with all the ups and downs, I am left with the certainty that it is only with him that I will ever know true happiness.
Only the marriage partners truly "see" each other, and that is what makes marriage so hard. As a partner you have to make marriage look easy in society, and that means that you have to not only contain the negative, but you have to embrace it as well, as best you can,. If you are lucky enough to find someone who wants to go on the journey with you, hang on to them! Only then will you be able to know the joy of a long term relationship.

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