Genesis 2:18-24 “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.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.”
By this point, you are probably saying, “Oh come one! You really expect us to believe this? Why did an Almighty Creator have to steal a rib from poor unsuspecting Adam to create a woman?” I agree with you; I am certain the same God who created Adam could also create a woman without taking any tissue from Adam. And did such an event really occur? I don’t know. Do the details of Eve’s creation really matter? No, not really. What is important is that God acted as a Divine Match Maker and brought Adam and Eve together for what would turn out to be a tumultuous marriage.
I have been married twice. I believed I loved my first husband and I felt sorry for him and thought I could help him. Unfortunately, I subscribed to the erroneous belief that sufficient love could make up for all previous deficiencies. (The Beatles were singing, “Love is all you really need.” They were wrong.) I thought I could help my husband heal when in fact he needed God to do the healing. Both of us were incredibly naive, and each of us had constructed a perfect spouse in our own minds. When reality failed to meet our expectations, the marriage was doomed. My biggest mistake was that I failed to seek God’s will for the situation. The collapse of the marriage plunged me into a deep depression that nearly led me to commit suicide. Blessedly, God provided people who were able to help enough that I refrained from killing myself.
After that experience, I decided that it was going to be me and Jesus for the rest of my life and that I would never remarry. I knew I had a calling on my life to be a medical missionary, and I figured I would complete my training and God would lead me on from there. So when I began praying with a friend from church for God to heal his marriage, I was totally unprepared when this friend advised me that God was going to send me a husband. My initial reaction was, “No thanks!”
Despite my protestations, my friend kept reiterating his statement that God was sending me a husband. One Sunday morning, I dropped in to visit a small church being pastored by a friend. This congregation had just lost their pianist when her husband was transferred and they had been begging God to send them a pianist. With ten years of piano lessons and the ability to play by ear, I filled the bill and suddenly became their pianist. The pastor hot-footed it home and called Bob, my husband-to-be, who was on duty at a local fire station. “Oh Bob! You’ve GOT to meet this lady doctor who came to church this morning!” Bob was totally unenthused; several blind dates had proven disappointing and he was not interested. When the two of us glimpsed each other for the first time at the midweek service, neither of us was impressed; however, the next Sunday, the pastor encouraged me to give Bob a ride back to the fire station where he was living and working. That ride took place in late October, and we were married six months later. But this time, the situation was bathed in prayer. Bob was a dedicated Christian who had his own set of bad marital experiences. During that six months, God worked amazing miracles of emotional healing and so united us that it was as if we had always been together. Next week, we will celebrate 42 years of marriage.
What have we learned during four decades of marriage? 1. Allow God to be your matchmaker. Forcing situations can result in disaster. 2. Pray throughout your courtship and follow God’s timeline and not yours. 3. Pray over all decisions, particularly those involving money. 4. Keep short accounts; forgive each other quickly and don’t hold grudges. 5. Share the challenges of your lives and pray for each other. 6. Pray prayers of protection over each other, particularly protection for physical, emotional, and spiritual protection. 7. Worship God together. 8. Take time to enjoy each other.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help all those who are married or considering marriage to seek Your Will first and to base their marriages on You. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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