One

“Why don’t you take this half of the car, Honey, and drive to town to do your shopping.  I’ll take the other half of the car and run my errands, o.k.?  B’bye… Have a nice time!” 

This is my husband’s creative description of what oneness in marriage is not.

A husband and wife who view their roles as

functioning better together

than when they operate independent from each other

are missing one simple fact: 

they are one.

One is one. 

When one is divided, it is not two.

When one is divided, each piece is a fraction,

incomplete and inoperable,

unable to function as a whole

because each fraction is not a whole.

Marriage represents the oneness of Christ and His beloved church;

expressing and acting upon His desire, self-sacrifice,

and unconditional love for her. 

Once the bond is established through salvation,

there is no separating or becoming amputated from God’s embrace;

His promise is never to leave me nor forsake me. 

This promise holds true for each believer

who enters into the bond of His love.

He is Life.

This attribute, along with every other aspect of God,

becomes my lifeblood

which flows throughout every part of me.

His Spirit absorbs and saturates the void of my soul,

likened to a cloth dipped into colorful dye.

It is not possible to break this unit into two fractions,

to separate me from God or God from me.

There is no line of division.

Can a heart be ripped into two halves and continue to function?

Can a brain be sawn in two and proceed to think whole thoughts?

One being contains one heart, one mind, one soul.

Each holy union of marriage

carries within its framework the solemn responsibility

of representing the union of Christ and His Beloved.

Yet all people who fill these shoes

are imperfect, incapable,

unqualified.

Oneness in marriage

is not made more whole by trying harder,

is not gauged by notions of what is good enough,

is not weighed by who serves whom better or more.

At the moment they are declared husband and wife

and the husband lifts the veil

to see his bride’s beauty,

just so,

God’s provisions of unfathomable mercy,

of undeserved grace,

of profound forgiveness,

unveil the mystery of oneness in marriage;

each imperfect mate serving the other imperfectly,

together wholly invested in His Perfect Love.

One plus one equals…  one.

~ae