One-fleshness

Because of stuff on the news and also in our circle of relations, I've had occasion to muse again about marriage:

I've been thinking about being one flesh.

One-fleshness.

... a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

This is one of those actual aspects of God's creation that is often taken as negotiable. It is usually taken as something like a poetic exaggeration.

But this is no poetic exaggeration. It is simply the truth.

It is one of those truths that is not exactly scientifically verifiable. So we think we can alter its validity -- by laws, by social conventions, or even by changing the definition of marriage.

But in actuality, you can't change the truth of it.

I still recall a comment made by a boss of mine some 35 years ago. He described his divorce this way: "It was like ripping flesh ..." He was not a man of any particular faith. In fact he was quite full of himself, and as I recall it, he said "it was like ripping flesh" almost boastingly.

I've never forgotten that through the ups and downs and ins and outs of my own marriage of 31 years.

It took Adam just a few seconds to recognize Eve as "flesh of my flesh, bone of my bones."

It's taken me a lot longer to recognize that Valerie is flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bones.

For me, I see it as a benefit of old age: to appreciate the indescribable truth of one-fleshness with my wife. She's part of me, and vice-versa, in a way that is simply not describable. So I won't waste words trying to describe it.

I'll just say it's worth waiting for; it's worth not giving up on.

Logos2Go

Mark 10-6-8 But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one.