Post Sunday September 27 2009

“It is not good that man should be alone;…” Genesis 2:18

This Post Sunday Devotional is dedicated to my wife Nicole, who as of this past September 19 has caused me to say “Wow!” for 17 incredible years. May I be so fortunate and blessed to be graced with another 17……at least!

Doing what I do in life means that I’m talking about God a lot and the only way I can get to know who He is, is by reading the Bible. I really do love reading it and I typically am thinking about certain passages and stories throughout my day, when I’m driving, when I’m exercising, when I’m standing in line at stores, when I’m working on finances, other administrative stuff and yes, even when I’m in the middle of conversations.

This particular passage in Genesis comes back to me a lot and it just flat out makes me smile. God in the beginning creating and everything He is creating is good, He creates man and for the first time He says something is not good, not the man, the fact that he is alone, that is not good. He could have sent Fido, man’s best friend to him and Adam could have forever thrown a stick and watched Fido go get it. Or God could have sent Fifi the cat to him and Adam could have forever, well, I guess run around Eden with a ball of string and watch Fifi chase it. Or He could have created Bubba so Adam would have someone to watch football games with and complain about the referees. But God in His perfection of thought, His perfect wisdom after seeing something that was not good, found that the solution, the perfect solution was to create a woman to join Adam so that he was no longer alone.

When God took one of Adam’s ribs and made woman and brought her to Adam he pretty much said, Wow! Do you remember when you first met that person of your dreams? Wow! Wow would be a pretty good summation for me when I first met my wife. Life for me both ended and began the day I met Nicole. It ended because I could think of nothing else but her from that point on and it began because I for the first time saw all that was good in this world.

To know that God wanted that for me means a lot to me. It communicates things to me about God that very few other things in this world can. To know that He understood my loneliness and my needs not just as a Convenience Store Manager who would be satisfied to see me walk away with a Snickers Bar and a Coke, but rather as the Lord of Heaven He would bring into my life not someone that I want to not just spend a few decades with, but eternity with (the two shall become one flesh….what God has joined together let no man separate Matthew 19:4-6). To know that God wants me to be with my wife to share my life with her and hers with me, that is something that I personally am forever grateful for. To know that my relationship with my wife means that much to God really communicates the uniqueness of the relationship I have with her.

Our marriages are very special to God. The only other relationship in which God points to the fact that we are joined in one flesh to another is our relationship with Him (1 Corinthians 6:15-19, Colossians 1:27).

Is it not worth all that we are to strengthen that bond with our spouses? Is it not worth time shouting out thank you Lord after we look into each other faces and say Wow!? Is it not worth it to try one more time to love deeply and if that time fails to try yet again?

My 5 year old son Ben a few weeks ago at his Kindergarten orientation was sitting with another one of his classmates and Ben looked at him and said, “Hey I know how to make friends. You just walk up to someone and say, Hey do you want to be my friend?” “If they say Yes, then you are friends.” “If they say No, then you say, that’s OK, then you go and ask someone else.”

Ben paused. The other kid then said.

“So, do you want to be friends?”

Ben replied, “Yes.”

The boy immediately turned to his Mom to tell her that he and Ben were friends and Ben immediately turned to my wife and I to tell us that he was friends with this boy.

He was so excited. Ben loves being loved. He loves relationship and that love for relationship comes directly from God. We all have it, because it is not good for man to be alone.

Maybe some of us need to just walk up to our spouses and ask them to be our friend again, to rekindle the Wow! To break down the walls that have blocked our relationship and have cast a heavy shadow on them. Maybe you just need to be willing to ask how to love once again.

Maybe you just need to say thank you to God and then remind your spouse that you feel so fortunate and special to be in oneness with them.

Maybe you need to go away together and remember what it is like to laugh, love and live.

Maybe you just need to step back and say….Wow!

“The most important relationship your children will ever see is the relationship between their Mom and Dad. The most important relationship your children will ever have the opportunity to assess, dissect, critique and to model is the relationship between their Mom and Dad.” - Taken from yesterday’s message “Caring for the Parents”


pastor e