Marriage as the Kingdom

Life is incredibly risky. Loves takes a chance.

As I get closer and closer to my wedding date, I cannot help but ponder the implications of marriage. Marriage takes an incredible chance. I will open up myself completely to one person in the greatest capacity this side of the grave.

Our relationship will be an opportunity to model Christ in a very different way. I spoke with a colleague of mine about marriage. She was having a tremendous time agreeing with the passage in Ephesians that spoke about marriage. She doesn't agree with the passage about wives submitting to their husbands. Submitting can be an incredibly frightening event; however, it is only proper when it is done with the explicit knowledge that he or she is looking after your interests above all. That he (or she) would die for you.

There is a mutual submiting action that should take place within the confines of a marriage. Both sides are loving each other, using the same interactions that Christ and the Church ideally has.

Marriage is a representation of the Kingdom upon this earth. I wonder if God chose marriage to be a glimpse of the Kingdom, a foreshadowing of sort. God, in His endless majesty, chose to use this reality in a beautiful way. It is a glimpse into eternity, how the Body of Christ deals with their King.

There should not be a 1950's "Leave it to Beaver" relationship. There ought to be a co-dependence where flesh and bone is mutually reinforcing. Or as Rob Bell says in Sex God, that our weakness (flesh) is paired up with their strength (bone).

I think that my relationship with my future wife is a lot like that in many ways. That my failings and triumphs are matched with hers. A marriage should be a functioning team, a Dynamic Duo if you will.

A glimpse of eternity is revealed in a marriage. I pray that it will be so in mine.