Daily EncouragementSample

This marriage equation is unique: one plus one equals one. The two become one flesh, and not only in the union of the marriage bed. To quote Dr. Ed Wheat, “In the divine pattern of marriage, sexual intercourse between husband and wife includes both intimate physical knowledge and a tender, intimate, personal knowledge. So the leaving, cleaving and knowing each other result in a new identity in which two individuals merge into one - one mind, heart, body and spirit.“

This marriage equation is divine. Like our Lord, we must go back to the beginning when “the Creator made them male and female, and said, ‘for this reason a man will leave his father and mother to be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’” (verse 5).

This marriage equation is permanent: “what God has joined together, let man not separate.” They are “no longer two” who can go their separate ways. After divorce, what is left is not two people but two fractions of one.

Temple Gardiner’s prayer breathes the spirit of this union:

That nothing may be between me and her,
Be Thou between us every moment.
That we may be constantly together,
Draw us into separate loneliness with thyself.
And when we meet breast to breast, my God,
Let it be on Thine own.