The Mystery of Marriage

My granddaughter squealed with delight as I swung her higher and higher.

“Did you push PePaw in the swing like this when you were little like me?”

I smiled, gave my granddaughter another push, and attempted to explain what I knew would be a difficult concept for her to grasp.

“Sweetie, I didn’t know your grandfather when I was little. I met him right before we went to college.”

My granddaughter’s brow furrowed. She was puzzled.

To my 4-year-old granddaughter, it was unthinkable that her grandparents had not always been together. In her mind, we were entwined as one person. One couldn’t possibly exist without the other.

That’s the kind of intimacy the Bible talks about when it refers to Christians as the bride of Christ.

Two lives entwined as one.

The Apostle Paul makes it clear that “a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” He goes on to say, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32).

The intimacy we enjoy in marriage was intended to illustrate our lives in Christ.

In both a godly marriage and in Christ, we are—

• Known intimately: “O Lord, you have searched me and known me” (Psalm 139:1)!
• Valued highly: “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
• Provided for: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).
• Deeply loved: “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).

My little granddaughter can’t imagine me without her grandfather by my side. And I can’t imagine myself without Jesus. He is―in life and death―everything.