Married

When God created man, Adam had God to talk with.  God, however, is Spirit.  Adam's spirit could commune with God's Spirit.  Adam, however had another part to his being that did not match up with God: flesh and bone.

Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:22-24 NIV)

Adam and Eve now become the first husband and wife.  They embody the first marriage.  Marriage is of God.  Each of them was flesh and bone, so they were the same.  Their bodies were a little different, though.  One carried the seed for new humanity.  One carried the egg and safe womb in which it would grow.  There was more to becoming one flesh than two human beings being flesh and bone.  They would fulfill the first command God gave Adam and Eve as a married couple.

God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."(Genesis 1:27-28 NIV)

God commanded them to begin having children and filling the earth.  Marriage created the first family and God intended that family to grow.  It did.  That's why we are still here today.

Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, '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 flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." (Matthew 19:3-6 NIV)

Each spouse should know that they can count on the other, so, as Jesus said, "what God has joined together, let no one separate."  Marriage is a union by God for life.  It is a sacred union.  It reflects the glory of God.  When we love one another in marriage, people should see the kind of love an invisible God has for us.  When we forgive one another in marriage, people should see the kind of forgiveness extended to us by God.  Every time we live out an attribute of God in our marriages, people see God in our marriages.

How about you?  Have you ever been married?  Do you have children?  Does your marriage reflect the image of God?  If you are single, do you look for a spouse who will reflect the image of God with you?  Is God in your picture of marriage?