Friday, December 19, 2014

Long Lists

Col.2:8 "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces[a] of this world rather than on Christ."


Santa
Such a fun tradition...
such a benevolent fellow...
if you behave yourself!
There's always the threat of coal.

But God is not like Santa Clause...
Yes,
He knows when you've been sleeping
He knows when you're awake
But
He knows He must crush bad for good
He IS good
For Heaven's sake!

All this fussing about the long list of who's been naughty or nice.
God made a way to erase your name from the list of crimes and punishment. "Love keeps no record of wrongs..." 1 Cor. 13:5
He made a way to write your name on a longer list in
The Book of Life.
His greatest reward
is bestowed in unconditional love.
It is
a gift.
"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Mt. 1:21

It's a week before Christmas. I'm still reconfiguring my living room and the tree is not decorated. The gifts are piled up...waiting to be opened and enjoyed. God is also making things ready. His gifts are waiting to be opened and enjoyed, but we have a death grip on our lump of coal. It's hard, it's dirty and we don't even have a match to make it useful. So, God lights it up. He burns it away so we will be rid of it. Sometimes we get scalded in the process because it's so hard to let go!
This is how I've come to see sin. We turn away from Him and all the good He offers us, while the fingers of our soul reach and wrap around things that offer us nothing. We despise Him for the burning pain...
and are blinded to the hope His "severe mercy" secures...

"They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. This is the ultimate defeat of evil and suffering. It will not only be ended but so radically vanquished that what has happened will only serve to make our future life and joy infinitely greater.” Tim Keller quoting C.S. Lewis

Col. 2:9 "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority...
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[d] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 (having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us- NASV),  which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. "





Saturday, December 13, 2014

Who decorates your family tree?



John 17:20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

There has been much discussion over the years about our family tree. Mystery lies within the line of Phil and the line of Jill!
Like any family tree, it is full of names both familiar and unfamiliar...storied and over-looked...compelling and sad.
Our family tree has lost branches,
mended broken ones
grafted in new ones...
that carry the family name.

There's been much discussion about Jesus' family tree as well. Mystery lies within the pages of Matthew and Luke...the line of Joseph and the line of Mary.
An ancestry full of no-names, big-names, good-names and bad-names.
Jesus Christ, Son of God, flesh of Mary's family tree
grafted into Joseph's line,
to redeem the lost
mend the broken
and graft His family back together.
So that we may be called by His name...
Christ-ian.

And so, our family celebrates the coming of Christ at Christmas.
His grace and beauty glow from our family tree, not because we are big-names or good-names;
not in spite of our no-names and bad names...
but because we carry His name.

Eph. 3:14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Friday, December 5, 2014

Advent: Promises Kept

Promises, Promises...
Last Christmas one of my children was severely disappointed with a promised gift. The request made, the wait long, the hopes high...the gift? Not quite right.
Advent celebrates promises kept in answer to the desperate need of God's people.
The requests- made
The wait- long
The hopes- high.
The gift?
Perfect.
The Gospels share personal stories of personal experiences with The Gift.
But before we get to Mary,

Elizabeth:

Jesus,
the fruit of Mary’s womb
root of Jesse.
The story is God's, but I am in the story...

Trace the tree of life and see
Fruit to bloom and bloom to leaf
Leaf to limb, and limb to bough
Bough to bole and bole to root…and
Jesus there as well
Jesus fruit
And Jesus root.
The beginning and the end.

I am only Elizabeth
But I played a part in the epoch of eternity...

Like two trees growing side by side
Zechariah and I
Were grafted together in the soil of our faith
Waiting.

I thought:
If I were as big as God
I would press my cheek upon cerulean blue
Roll back the cloudy covers
reach through atmosphere and ages.
And wrap My people in My promise…
Immanuel.

But I was only Elizabeth;
Old, disgraced in barrenness
Waiting.

I was Elizabeth
“My God is an oath”
…that’s what my parents named me
it IS what God became to me…
The promise keeper, The promise kept
And all the years of shame were swept
Away
By Immanuel.

He was Zechariah.
“The Lord recalled”
…that’s what his parents named him-
it IS what God became to him…
The Lord remembered, He could not forget…
and the months of voiceless wonder met
John
Who was the voice.

He was John.
“The Lord is gracious”
…that’s what we were told to name him-
it IS what God became to him…
The Lord showed favor to His elect
And the hopes of hearts in waiting set
To rest
in Immanuel.

“The Lord IS gracious”!

I carried the messenger
of Immanuel.
I felt him leap
In the presence of
The fetal Messiah
I knew him as son
whom you call:
“John the Baptizer”.
I raised
the martyred messenger
of the risen Christ,

I am only Elizabeth
But I
know
Immanuel.

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us
and accomplished redemption for His people,

...to remember His holy covenant

...to give His people the knowledge of salvation, by the forgiveness of sins,
Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, 
To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace."
Luke 1: 68, 72b, 77-79


Sunday, November 23, 2014

Reason for Thanks

50And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. 52The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;… Mt. 27:51

Fabric heaving under tension
straining, cowered, curled
the man.
Obscured behind the curtain
brilliance shining, the
I Am

Glory, Peace and power
love in spaces meant
for man
pushing out around the edges
lighting light from the
I Am.

Corrupt in striving weakness
now pride's folly all
consumed
for the dangling shroud dropped, ripping
as Christ roared,
"You're mine-
I Am!"

2 Samuel 14:14
Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.

Friday, November 14, 2014

On a dim day
Maples blaze;
striking poses nearby-
a line of naked limbs,
vestures shed.
Their colors lay in disarray.

Starlings startle at my plodding,
and I thank God
for a walk in Autumn.

"But he has given proof of what he is like. He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven. He gives you crops in their seasons.
He provides you with plenty of food. He fills your hearts with joy."
Acts 14:17 (NIRV)

Thursday, October 16, 2014

The difference between life and death Gen. 3:14-24



2 Corinthians 5:8-9English Standard Version (ESV)

"8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him."

We have arrived at the end of the beginning.
Adam and Eve set us to wondering many things...feeling many things...
but above all,
I leave this study feeling simultaneous grief and awe.
God offered the richness of His love and the fulness of His life; but Adam and Eve were under-awed, under-whelmed
and way over-inflated.
They would not maintain marital unity and intimacy without God.
They would not find lasting purpose in life apart from God.
They could not continue on in their isolated condition, eternally the walking dead.
No
No
No
Death was never intended to be a part of life.
Man and woman chose death when they turned inward, closing themselves off from the life-giver,
like a flower that won't drink the rain
or a tree that won't look to the sun.

But the love God made man to share in is
Indefatigable
He will never say
"You've tried my last nerve!"
He pursues relentlessly
for He walked in the garden
Father, Son, Holy Spirit
offering inclusion
to man.
The plans God made man to share in are
Inalterable
He will never be overcome.
The Father said -

"Serpent, eat dust
Satan, be crushed
Woman, life through pain 
Man, pain through life...

Son, win them back."

and His death redeemed our life.

1 Cor. 15:21-22, 54c "For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive...'Death is swallowed up in victory."


Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden.
Riveted to the gate that closed behind them, The Father drew their eyes to gate that opened ahead.

For this earth and these bodies and all that they are bound to are done away with at death and we are freed...
in Christ.

What kind of a God takes on the form of His own creation to be with them?
What kind of a God subjects His own life to suffering for the sake of ones by whom He's been rejected?
What kind of a God uproots the natural order to upturn the spiritual...and bring us back to Him?

Our God.
He makes the difference between life and death.

"6-8 That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.10

...Sooner or later we’ll all have to face God. "


2 Corinthians 5:8-10The Message (MSG)







Thursday, September 18, 2014

Gen. 3: 11-13 "Who?"- Shame part 2

Wearing shame.
It's revealing!
Revealing my own awareness of what I am not and what I am but wish I weren't, shame is sometimes  a result of accurate self-assessment and sometimes it is not.

My weaknesses make me feel shame. Every day provides ample opportunity for me to want to hide in the bushes. "I'm worthless. I'm pointless. I'm completely incapable." As a result, my gut response to confrontation is defensiveness: 
"Oh please don't tell me I let you down! Of course I did. I always do. I'm a failure. I'm...
ashamed."
My inadequacies cause other people hassle and pain; so I'd rather just go into hiding.
Joking and apathy are good hiding places; 
isolation is too.
When all else fails, blame may do the job.
Just like in the very first confrontation between God and man, 
following the very first game of hide and seek, blame became a tool of self-defense.

God: "Who?"

Adam: "...It was you! It was the woman!"
Eve: "...It was the serpent"

"Blaming or denigrating others serves to disown what the shameful person feels. Shame may lead a person to make attributions about others that are disguised attempts to restore a positive self-view or hide negative self-perceptions. In order to escape shame's self-diminishing effects, a person might instead denigrate others or express contempt toward them. Thus a person might attempt to bolster his own view of himself by finding flaws in others so that they become the one who is shameful." by Mary C. Lamia, Ph.D.

God in His infinite grace and mercy has compassion on us.

 Psalm 103: "An earthly father expresses love for his children;
    it is no different with our heavenly Father;
The Eternal shows His love for those who revere Him.
14 For He knows what we are made of;
    He knows our frame is frail, and He remembers we came from dust."



Psalm 100:3  "Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."

"Psalm 139: 13-14 "For You shaped me, inside and out.
    You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath.
14 I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe.
    You have approached even the smallest details with excellence;
    Your works are wonderful;
I carry this knowledge deep within my soul." The Voice


You see a "positive self-view" cannot start with the self and cannot end with the self. It must start with the One who made us and must end with the One who saves us. 


Ephesians 1:4 "...He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight;"


Here's my take on a personal conversation following my own games of hide and seek-

Me: "Shake it off
the shame that plagues me
strip myself from
shame that weighs
Feigning virtues, 
blush betrays me
But I will not be 
the one to blame!"

Jesus: "Pick it up
and lay it on me!
stripped, I bore
the guilt that slays
claiming virtue
Love compels me
I'll be the One
to take your blame."


Isaiah 30:18The Voice (VOICE)

18     Meanwhile, the Eternal One yearns to give you grace and boundless compassion;
        that’s why He waits.
    For the Eternal is a God of justice.
        Those inclined toward Him, waiting for His help, will find happiness.









Monday, September 15, 2014

Gen. 3:7-9 "What's become of you?" - Shame part 1



Shame
It seems at times, I wear my life
like an ill-fitted garment.

Reluctant to reach if ripping
Unwilling to run if tripping

Afraid I'll be exposed or fall
But perhaps it's not the fit at all.


Leaves picked in newly private places.
Conscience pricked in freshly wrecked regard.
Contaminates contaminated.
Man, made from the dust...
found a dirty self unearthed
and he ran to bury it.
Everything right felt wrong.
Everything around them-wrong.
Everything between them-wrong.
Everything about them?
What would God, the only thing- the only one still right, think?

In the gentle breezes of the day, God's presence stirred the garden. No, He was not content to wind up his world like a clock and let it tick away like a bomb because God is not simply the Creator.
God is Father. On the day He was betrayed; God the Father pursued his children.
"Where are you?" or "What's become of you...why are you hiding?" God called to the man.
This was not a shattered God gasping, "For shame!"
This was a grieved God offering reconciliation.

And,
How like the Father is the Son who, though betrayed, calls His people out of hiding..."What's become of you? Come!"
How like the Father is the Son, who calls us back to freedom..."Why are you hiding? Come"!
He calls you back to all that's right...
He calls you back to life...
Come!
Revelation 2-3, 22:12-17

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Silence of the man...

"...and she gave also to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it." Gen. 5:6b

Adam
First man ("Ish")
First hu-man (God-man)
alone...
But then
to complete God's image,
wo-man (Ishah- from man)
a helper (one to strengthen).
Eve lent not just hands for a task
Eve came alongside Adam,
who recognized his need of a fitted partner,
to empower him.
Together, given the command from
Creator, Father
"Be like me -
Give life
nurture life
manage my world."
Eve's design to em-power
became device to over-power.

By the power of speech,
God brought light into darkness
order into a holy mess-
earth.
By silence
Adam welcomed chaos back.

Why did the power of speech elude Adam at this critical moment? Perhaps Eve had discovered her womanly influence...
perhaps Adam thought: "to avoid conflict is the higher road", and seemingly without protest,
Adam joined his wife...
initiating conflict between God and his creation.
Eve was enticed into believing she needed more than she had; Adam seemed to believe Eve was all he needed. By stepping outside of God's Word, they stepped into a world without God.

Together they were given the world,
Together they gave it away.
Adam-First to omit
Eve-First to commit

How dare we blame God for the craziness of what's become of all His good beginnings...
for the end of good beginnings was the beginning man's of sin.

But God IS good,
and this story has a different ending;
God will speak
and His enemies will be silenced.

Rev. 21:3-5a "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
"He who is seated on the throne said,
'I am making everything new!'"

* A resource I used to write this blog is : The Silence of Adam by Dr. Larry Crabb


...

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Gen. 3:6 "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to makeone wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves [b]loin coverings."

1 John 2:16 "All the things the world can offer to you—the allure of pleasure, the passion to have things, and the pompous sense of superiority—do not come from the Father. These are the rotten fruits of this world." (The Voice)

one fruit
one lie
one choice

a feast 
for flesh 
for eyes

to gloat,
to glut
to prize

one heart
one mind
one voice

God offered Eve His world in love, to love Him. Eve grabbed at the world to love herself.
Anything you do that is ultimately motivated by devotion to yourself...your pleasure, your delight, your reputation...is an act of rebellion against your God. 
Eve's sin was not about the fruit. It was about Eve.
Selfishness can twist what God intended for good into evil- quick as you can say "ME". Worshipping ourselves makes us enemies of God. 
Telling ourselves that God exists to make us happy is not the Gospel. It is not good news if we are as big as the grand plan gets!
By all means embrace how God made you...because it honors Him.
By all means delight in the gifts He gives you...because they are from Him.
By all means make the most of the days He provides you...because they are for Him!
No, Victoria Osteen, God does not exist just to make sure you're happy. Believe it or not He is bigger than that.
Maybe,
"When you come to church and worship...think of it this way...yer not doin' it fer God, yer doin' it fer yerself....a-ME-in?"
But I want to choose to live for something, for Someone much bigger than me.

"Selfish ambition is a sin that always seems to be “crouching at the door” (Genesis 4:7). It contaminates our motives for doing just about anything..." Jon Bloom, DesiringGod.org
No one can serve two gods. 
Are you the only one you serve
or will you serve The One and Only? 

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Word

"Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be called a liar." Prov. 30: 2a, 3, 5-6
"Study to show thyself approved unto God..." 2 Tim. 2:15a

"Publish"
says the little orange rectangle at the top of my page.
I shutter, pray and click-
out go my thoughts to whomever clicks on the other side.
Scarey!
Did I get it right?
Did the words communicate God's heart, His truth?
Will it be read as it was meant?
Will I (or far worse, God) be misunderstood?
First I was a daughter and a youngest sister and I was taught but now I am also a pastor's wife, mother, friend, employee...
By default or intention, I teach.
By commission or omission,
by deeds or
by the power of a word,
I am a communication of thoughts about God.
Maybe when the tip of a finger hits the edge of a key there is a new level of responsibility, but as image bearers of God, we are all responsible. We are all publishers.
Adam was a publisher. He had understanding of God, he had a first-hand message of love and goodness for Eve but
Eve didn't get it right...
Gen. 3:3, "or touch it," she added.
Not quite Eve! (Gen. 2: 17)
In ignorance, Eve was as ripe for deception as the fruit for eating.
Her lack of understanding made wiggle room for lies.

God in His grace knows the dangers of ignorance. Ignorance leads to pride and pride to destruction. But God has a message; it's published...
for you.
It's called the Holy Bible.
It is the life of His Son.
It is understood through the power of His Spirit.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God." John 1:1

"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life- and the life was manifested and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us- what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." 1 John 1:1-3







Friday, August 29, 2014

We call Him "Father"

"In the beginning God...
Now the serpent..."

There is a trend in the Church toward story-telling;  to tell our story as part of God's story, to respect each other's story...
the story starts here, in Genesis.
Whatever your story has become, Genesis tells its beginning.
Revelation tells its resolution,
and everything in between- the conflict.
Here within the pages of the Bible is a varied and extensive cast of characters but God is the main character; this is His story, His plot;
He is the point.
All religions begin with a story; ours begins with the Triune God.
Unlike other religions who claim faith in a singular God; the God of the Bible exists in and for relationship. In other words, the God of the Bible is the only One who can exist in love because He is the only One who exists in relationship. Love begins with Him, and it is out of His love, that life springs. God loved, therefore God created. (That is why Christians say: "It isn't a religion...it's a relationship.")
As initiator and source of life, we call Him "Father". Put aside all the feminist crap (that's about as strong a word as I'll use although a stronger would be fitting) about Christianity being chauvinistic ... we call Him "Father" because He is the originator of life! This is not about comparing the sexes! Stop wrestling God's own Word into your own agenda. Man was created in His image as life giver (Father), so God MADE first a male (Adam), then man was made in His image of life nurturer, so God MADE next a female (Eve). The sexes were created to work as a partnership in expressing His character NOT His gender.
But before creation...before God was compelled to create the world of mankind; God existed with the Son. Jesus eternally exists based upon the life-giving nature of the Father. Jesus is the first "begotten" of God. And yes, Jesus entered human history as a perfect man, the fullness of Deity expressed in humanity , as the communication of life from the giver of it....
Then the Spirit...The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. There is no "Him" or "Her" assigned. The Holy Spirit, in fellowship with the Father and the Son, empowers life.
But the cast of characters in the story of our faith is not complete in Genesis 1-2. Like all great plots, the Bible tells the story of conflict. Genesis 3:1 Enter Satan:
"Now, the Serpent..."
Fresh on the heels of Adam and Eve,
Satan.
Satan is also called a Father (although I've never seen anyone outraged and pumping banners: "What if Satan's a woman?"). Satan is the Father of lies (John 8:44), the twister of all that is good into evil.
We have limited information and differing opinions on the origin of Satan but most theologians agree that Satan is a fallen angel (Is. 14:12-15, Ez. 28:13-17); created to worship God but attempting the coup of the ages. Like the classic evil dictator; he had no inherent rights to any power. He cleverly swindled it out the hands and hearts of Adam and Eve. Indwelling the serpent, he drew Eve into conversation. "Did God really say...?" Satan fanned the embers of pride, lust and greed. He began by causing doubt: Had Eve understood correctly? Did God really mean what she thought he meant? Was it really for her good? Did God really care about her good? Were the consequences of disobedience really that bad?  Would what she stood to gain outweigh  those consequences?
The doubts that Satan planted in the thinking of Eve, drew her away from truth...away from love and into the lie that we are worthy objects of our own worship. Satan was right about one thing; Eve did become more like God that day, now she knew evil.
Hello, Satan.
Goodbye, Eden.




Friday, August 22, 2014

No Shame

Perfect God creates perfect man and woman.
Perfect man lives in perfect love with God and woman.
Perfect....nothing short of perfect.
Nothing to hide...nothing to fear,
yet.
Adam and Eve lived enthralled by each other and by God;
Wrapped in blissful self-unawareness,
innocent
known
loved and loving
secure
and
vulnerable.
Perfect vulnerability.
Perfect love cannot exist outside of vulnerability.
Can we say God is vulnerable?
IF we believe God is triune...yes, He is vulnerable.
Because He exists as a trinity, a loving fellowship of three. I believe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share a mutual vulnerability to each other. They are fully known and fully affected by each other...but they live in perfect love,
a perfectly secure community.
Adam and Eve were made to reflect God in every way. Adam and Eve were vulnerable;
and while they lived within the covering of His love, they felt completely secure.
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear..." 1 John 4:18a

"The man and His wife were both naked, and they felt no shame." Genesis 2:25

Perfect love casts out fear.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

WHEN 2=1



Genesis 2:21 "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:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,

Because she was taken out of Man.”



When God the Father escorted Eve to Adam, Adam exclaimed, "Bone of my bone! Flesh of my flesh!" and embraced his gift.
A gift's value is determined by the one who gives and the one who receives...Eve was most highly valued. She was not one more animal. She was not from "Venus". Eve was not an accoutrement to be used and discarded. She was Adam's flesh. She was his bone...literally.
What began in physical reality is still possible in depth of mental, emotional and spiritual attachment. Marriage is a sacrament...an outward sign of an inward act of grace. 
Marriage is a miracle of two separate individuals acting ever on the behalf of the other, living for the sake of their union, modeling the incredible Divine Trinity. What was, comes into something new
and gives us a picture of what will be. 
Once I was a Morris, a reserved Baptist from Lancaster,  and Phil was a Carnuccio, a wild, fresh convert from Little Italy...well almost. Together we form something uniquely joined for God's glory. We are limbs that are stretched further than before,
eyes that are opened wider than before
and ears that are listening more intently than before
"us".
 Everyday that we fight through the barriers of knowing and caring for each other's hearts, we become increasingly inseparable.  No question, we are not alike (thank God) but we are one. And if Phil loves me and cares for me out of that oneness, as if caring for his own body, I will be very loved indeed! 
Paul said, "A husband ought to love his wife, as he loves his own body.' Eph 5:28. 
How different would culture be if husbands treated wives as their own flesh and bone?
But men abuse and women use and children treat the most sacred connection of all with complete disdain. Like a dark comedy playing out on a world stage, marriage has no consequence because it is entered into with nothing left to give in heart, in mind or in deed.   A pseudo sense of intimacy lasts for a few moments, a few fleeting days...weeks...maybe months before it is torn and tossed... ripping flesh and breaking bone. There is no true "oneness" to be had because it has been given away piece by piece. Piece by piece we shed  humanity until feeling little more than animal urge and instinct; 
crawling to the grave, 
fractured frames of a man and woman that could have been. 

Of course, I cannot say it better than Shakespeare:

"How comes it now, my husband, O, how comes it,
That thou art then estranged from thyself?
Thyself I call it, being strange to me,
That, undividable, incorporate,
Am better than thy dear self's better part.
Ah, do not tear away thyself from me;
For know, my love, as easy mayst thou fall
A drop of water in the breaking gulf,
And take unmingled thence that drop again
Without addition or diminishing,
As take from me thyself, and not me too.

For if we two be one, and thou play false,
I do digest the poison of thy flesh,
Being strumpeted by thy contagion.
Keep then fair league and truce with thy true bed;
I live dis-stain'd,
thou undishonoured. "
Adriana- A Comedy of Errors

The One who let His flesh be ripped is our hope of being made whole. He is the hope of inward grace shifting a life, 
and making two,
one.
Jesus prayed to His Father:
"The glory which You have given Me I have given them, that they may be one , just as We are one; I in them and You in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent me and loved them even as You have loved Me."
John 17: 22-23

The hope of the world begins in the homes of His people,
when two equal one.