You And Me Forever: Marriage In Light Of Eternityናሙና

"Eden"

Let’s finish this study by going back to the very beginning, to the moment when God created marriage. Genesis 1 and 2 tells us that God created the world out of nothing. He made everything simply by speaking every part of our world into existence. And then in the midst of this new world, He planted a garden—the Garden of Eden—and placed Adam, His first human creation, in the midst of that garden. Adam’s job was to “work and care for” Eden (Gen. 2:15). And because God had formed human beings “in His image” (Gen. 1:26–28), Adam’s job was also to represent God in this world, to rule with God, on His behalf. 

This is the setting in which God created marriage. 

Everything was perfect, everything was as God designed it, and yet God wanted His human creations to be joined together to fulfill their task of caring for this world and representing Him in the midst of it. God made husbands and wives to fit perfectly together, to be partners in the midst of this world, to fulfill together the task that God had given them in this world. The two become one flesh, they have no fear or shame in each other’s presence, and they get to work caring for God’s world and representing God to everyone and everything around them.

Use this beautiful description of marriage from Genesis 2 as a means of evaluating how your marriage is doing and where it needs to go. What have you learned? How have you been challenged? What work still needs to be done? 

Know for certain that these words we’ve written can’t change your life by themselves. But we’ve put you in contact with Scripture for an entire month, and the Word of God absolutely has power to change you (Heb. 4:12, 2 Tim. 3:16–17). 

The best marriage advice anyone can offer is this: Make it a daily habit to read Scripture together, to discuss it, and to live your life accordingly. 

Discuss with your spouse: As you look back over everything you’ve covered, how would you summarize where you’ve come and where you want to be headed?

(Optional) To go deeper, watch this video from youandmeforever.org