Trying Times Bring You Closer

Sometimes I think when everything is great, that’s when Anne and I are closest. We’re happy, our kids are behaving and obeying, finances are good…all is going well, so we must be doing well as a couple. Yet, when I really think about it, it’s moreso the trying times that bring us close.

We’ve been dealing with a challenging situation lately, and I’m amazed at how such an event will pull you closer to your spouse. When you’re on the same page, fighting the same fight, dealing with the same issues, it’s like you’re “in the trenches” together…like wartime comrads who would do anything for each other to protect the other.

Keep that in mind. When things seem to be the hardest around you, it’s a great time for growth in your marriage. When I wrote Married to Jesus, it was both the most diffucult time and the most precious time in our marriage. And, I’m glad for both components.

One Flesh

Have you ever caught yourself in a daze looking out the window when it’s raining? Or watching the water drip down the glass door of the shower? Or even anticipating the condensation as it gathers on a glass of iced tea? I find myself sometimes in awe as one droplet moves down a particular path until it combines with another droplet and the two then move together as one down the glass.

This is how I envision God’s description of the relationship of husband and wife in Genesis 2:24. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and they will become one flesh.” Becoming one flesh is like those two droplets flowing together to make the journey as one for the rest of their existence. Once they meet in the flow, there is no distinguishing one from the other. There is no separation. One is not stronger or better or more impressive than the other.

To take this analogy further, when those two drops form one, the new drop is bigger and more powerful than the two were separately, isn’t it? The same is true for a husband and wife who truly implement the idea of one flesh into their lives. They become a great force when they are bound together in Christ; a strong force that is extremely difficult to divide.

(Taken from Married to Jesus, Chapter 8, One Flesh)