FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE

Sir,

Of all the devastating effects of sin, one of the worst is what sin has done to marriage. Marriage was meant to be one of the most uplifting and edifying aspects of human existence. It was meant to be a source of joy, freedom and fulfillment but for many it has become, too often, a source of misery, oppression and despair.

From the first bite of the forbidden fruit, things turned from sweet to sour. Sin immediately impacted the relationship of Adam and Eve. “The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons,” Genesis 3:7. From that day nothing between men and women, husbands and wives has been the same.

The story of Adam and Eve has a beautiful beginning but a sad ending. God had provided them everything good. They were a handsome groom and a pretty bride, untainted with any blemish in their characters or bodies. They lived in a beautiful garden with no need to worry about anything. To top it all, God even gave them the prospect of everlasting life. The story ends with Adam and Eve losing it all.
Genesis 2:18-20 suggests that even though God observed the need to create a companion for the man, He delayed creating the woman until after all the animals were named. As we read the narrative, we feel with Adam his increasing awareness of being alone. He could not help noticing that as God brought animals and birds before him to be named, they came in pairs.

He gave the same name to the pair, but he had to observe that one was male and one female. They provided companionship for each other in a way that no other animal or bird could. In contrast, for him ‘no suitable helper was found’ (Gen. 2:20).
As God had created day by day, He was able to remark at the end of the day, when He reviewed His work, that it was ‘good’. He also uses the same word in the context of Adam, only in a different way. He says it is not ‘good’ that the man was alone.
“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said ‘this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man,” Genesis 2:21-23.

Adam’s initial feeling upon seeing Eve was not romance but relief. Now, at last, here was a living being with whom he could truly identify. She was not just his counterpart; being made from his rib, she was a literal part of him.
The woman was ‘not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to stand by him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved’!

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh,” Genesis 2:24.
Commenting on verse 24, Jesus declared that husband and wife ‘are no longer two, but one’ (Matt. 19:6, NIV). Husband and wife are to be united, socially, emotionally and spiritually, even as the Trinity, though three, is one. This is one way in which husband and wife reflect the ‘image of God’.

Dear reader, in order for love to exist, there must be someone to love and someone to be loved. And for marriage to exist, there must be one male and one female. It is natural for men and women to be united in love. Love marks a basic human relationship, it is not good for a man to be alone.

Bopoto Gwinyai
(7663 8191)

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