A Mystery*

Last week, along with my church, I was fasting and praying. This is just one of the things the Lord pointed out to me during that time.

“As the Scriptures say, ‘A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

-Ephesians 5:31-33 NLT

How exactly are men and women “one”? We are all taught that 1+1=2, not 1+1=1. This is just one of the reasons this concept is somewhat of a “mystery” to us. But what I love about it is that it really is an illustration of the love that Christ has for us. He chose to leave His father in heaven to become “one” with us, the church. How or why would the Lord of the universe want to do this?! Because He loves us tremendously!

God created men and women in His image. He made us to be a reflection of Himself. One way that He did that is how He created men and women to “fit” together. Separately, a man and a woman are each still whole pieces, but there’s a desire for the other. A longing for a deep, meaningful relationship that’s more intimate and lasting than any other. This is the relationship Christ desires to have with us. He wants us. Desires us. Can’t stop thinking about the relationship He wants to have with each and every one of us because He loves us. Loves.

As the church, we “fit” into Him. Without us, He’s not “incomplete,” but He misses us. His desire is for us to desire Him. In a similar manner that men and women desire to have a deep, devoted, lost-in-each-other relationship.

But what I find to be the greatest mystery isn’t in the similarities of the analogy, but in one of the major differences. In the relationship of a man and women, both are imperfect, mistake-making disasters, undeserving of a perfect true love. With Christ and the church, we are the vastly imperfect, mistake-making disasters being pursued by THE Perfect True Love of all time. We are completely undeserving of the Love that He gives us. He loves us as He loves His father, who He is a part of. How can we not at least attempt to show Him the respect and love that He truly deserves?


*This is a blog post from my old blog, originally written January 21, 2011.