That's what they call it, 'Holy Matrimony.' And everyone's heard those words so many times that maybe they've lost their meaning a bit. But it's true. The act of man and woman leaving mother and father and wedding and living and loving... It's holy. It's designed by God to be an example to the world for how he loves us all.
God is no stranger to covenant. He invented it, arranged it as the way to populate his world. He is the God of the covenant, after all. He promised Abraham descendants to populate the entire earth and then made all Christians Abraham's descendants through Christ's sacrifice. He planned for this promise, this covenant we live day to day, to be a holy union in his sight. Matrimony is holy.
We lose sight of this. It is hard to grasp in the day in day out that this union that we've made is Holy in God's eyes. We have our tight spots, our things we bicker over. There's the shirts that didn't get ironed and the lawn that didn't get mowed.
But working at it, keeping our promises, even the little ones, giving 100% to the other person, always putting their needs ahead of our own, these things make it holy. Day by day. Jesus called us to be holy as he is holy. There's no way to do this in our world except to beg forgiveness and then discipline to try again. To get better and better.
I was thunderstruck when this thought hit me the first time months ago. Can you believe it? 8 years married and I had never truly considered that the phrase 'Holy Matrimony' means just that. Joined together in a union that is actually holy to God. Amazing.
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