The Greatest Romance In History

So I'm putting on my overalls and tank top to go outside and do some yard work right before your Daddy was heading off to work, and he walks in the bedroom to get a kiss good-bye, "Oh, you look sexy!" he says. That could be, right there, one of the greatest love quotes of all time. Here I am in my scuzzy clothes - the non-figure defining fashion faux pas #57 - and my beloved husband thinks I am sexy. It sure put a little skip in my step as I went out to wash windows and water the flowers.

Two days ago at lunch, I was watching the movie City of Angels. A fictitious story about an angel named Seth (played by Nicolas Cage) who falls in love with a doctor named Maggie (Meg Ryan). He falls from grace to become a human to be with her. Just days later she dies in an accident. Visited by an angel after she dies, Seth is asked if he had known what was going to happen to Maggie, would he still have fallen. He responds, "I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One." That is a great love quote. Another great one from that movie, is when Maggie is dying. "I'm not afraid. When they ask me what I liked the best, I'll tell them, it was you." Cue the waterworks.

Both quotes speak of the depth of their love. Quotes like "You complete me," from Jerry Maguire. and "You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on" from Pride and Prejudice. You don't question that kind of love. It's deep, and profound, and real. When you are deeply in love with someone that is what you feel. You see them in the grungy clothes, and think they are sexy. Good heavens, I think your Daddy is sexy when I spontaneously throw a ball of fresh mozzarella cheese to him at the grocery store and he catches it. I think he is sexy when he's on his knees in prayer. I think he's sexy when does the dishes. Let's face it, I am hopelessly, deliriously, excitedly, wholeheartedly in love with this man.

That is the kind of love we want for our children. We want you to feel that completeness. We want you to have the greatest romance in history. To be able to tell your children one day, "I love your Daddy/Mommy 3,000 times more than I did on our wedding day." To see your beloved at their worst and yet only see the best. To know that their heartbeat is one of your favorite sounds. That when you cuddle close, their smell is one of the most captivating you've ever breathed in. How do you feel about your beloved right now? We want that for you for your lifetime, compounded and multiplied. So love and be loved. Don't ever take it for granted. Cherish it and nurture it. It is absolutely worth it.

Discussion: Write down a statement that describes how you feel about your beloved. Do you have a favorite love quote?

Prayer: Father God, we thank you for this love of our life. We pray, Father, we never forget to show how much we love our spouse. Lord we thank you that you showed us first and foremost what love is. In Christ we pray, Amen.

Oneness

I am taking a Bible study Sunday evenings called Foundations of Apologetics. It's a fascinating study, pretty deep, teaching you how to successfully defend your faith and what you believe. I learn something every single Sunday and this past Sunday was no exception.

The lesson was on the Trinity with the lecture by L.T. Jeyachandran. He was speaking about the earliest mention in the Bible of this three-persons-in-one God. In Gen.1:26 God says, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” Notice He uses the pronoun "our." God was referring to the beautiful perfect relationship between Himself, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jeyachandran went on to explain that one verse Jews use to claim God is one and not three persons is one that can actually be used to defend our three-in-one God. The verse is from the Shema, Deut. 6:4: "Here O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." The Hebrew word used for "one" in this instance is the word "echad." It means a composite oneness, a joining, like two rivers joining to become one river. If God through Moses in the book of Deuteronomy wanted to refer to His absolute solitary oneness, the Hebrew word used would have been "yachid." And this word is never used to describe God's oneness in the Old Testament. It's is always echad. A composite oneness.

Where else is the word echad used? In Genesis 2:24 "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh." The Hebrew used for one here is echad. The same word used to describe the composite oneness of the Trinity is used to describe the marriage relationship. That is one heck of a comparison. God is the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is God. The Holy Spirit is Jesus. All three are the same, yet have different forms and jobs. God is the Father. Jesus is the fully human/fully divine Son. The Holy Spirit is the indwelling Counselor. How magnificent our God is!

So one must deduce, then, the oneness of marriage is pretty strong. We talked a week ago about the strength in the three-strand bond and being one flesh. It just amazed me that God chose in His words to compare that beautiful oneness of the Trinity to a marriage bond. Brad and I are one flesh, according to the Father, a united team for Christ. You've heard the romantic comment from Jerry Maguire in the movie of the same name, "You complete me." Newsong and Natalie Grant sang about this unity in their song, "When God Made You." The opening lyrics say:

 "It's always been a mystery to me
How two hearts can come together
And love can last forever
But now that I have found you, I believe
That a miracle has come
When God sends the perfect one"

Then the chorus rationalizes that,

 "I wonder what God was thinking
When He created you
I wonder if He knew everything I would need
Because He made all my dreams come true 

When God made you, He must've been thinking about me." 

So do we believe that when God was forming Brad that He was thinking also about me and what we would do together as husband and wife? Yes, definitely. So do we think that when God was forming Ayla that he was thinking about Rob and what you both would do as husband and wife together. Yes, definitely. 

Brad just came in the room to say goodbye to me as he headed out the door to work. I sang the last line of the song to him. He kissed me and said, "That's God's sense of humor." He knew what we would need to compliment, challenge, grow and complete us. And we think it's a work of art. 

Discussion: What does the statement that "two will become one flesh" mean to the both of you? What pieces of your personality do you think compliment each other? Challenge? Complete you?

Prayer: Father, we thank you for your Son who taught us how to live and died for us. We thank you for the Holy Spirit that gently reminds us to Whom we belong and whispers to us the right path to take. You are glorious! Father in less than one year, you will join Rob and Ayla as one. We pray, Father, for their union to be blessed and beautiful and glorify you. In Christ's name, Amen.