More Precious Than Rubies
Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?
She is more precious than rubies. Proverbs 31:10 NLT
It seems as if the loudest voices in our culture would have us believe that traditional marriage is a thing of the past. Just one more dead puritanical tradition that should be updated in a progressive society that has moved past a need for God.
You may remember a time early on in the Bible when people began believing their own progressive press and they decided to build a tower that would reach the heavens so they could demonstrate their superiority, power and technological prowess. God saw what they were devising and dealt with their misguided arrogance accordingly (Genesis 11).
Being progressive in our views may be fine, but when it comes to marriage, God has set it apart as a symbol of a much bigger picture. So monogamous, heterosexual, love with purity and fidelity between a husband and wife which leads to the procreation of children and the formation of families, while wonderful, isn’t an end in itself, it is a picture of something else. Christ and His Church.
No matter how badly some might want it to be different than it is, it never will be. Just because you decide to ‘marry’ your parrot because you can train him to say what you want, it doesn’t make it marriage, not biblically.
Because the symbol of Christ and His Church that is displayed in the Christian marriage is a witness to the entire world of the truth as it is in Jesus. That He loves people and gave His life for their salvation, the same as a man would give his life for his wife. And His church loves Him, and remains virtuous and courageous in the face of any hostility or persecution.
“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.” (See Ephesians 5:21-33)
I cherish MaryAnn. I don’t show it very well much of the time, I’m afraid, but to me she is far more precious than rubies. She is my ‘pearl of great price’ in a physical and emotional sense. Not replacing Jesus in my life, but in how much of a treasure she is to me, how much of a difference she has made in my life and how much of Jesus that I see in her. She has made me complete and I want her life to be all that she dreams it can be because of my love for her. And she feels the same way towards me.
The thing is we’re both just frail and sinful people. Just a guy and a girl that met in their teens and decided to make a go of it. The difference in us is we decided to turn the reigns over to the Lord and just try and be faithful. The rest is history. His Story in us. And each marriage is like this, a testimony to the world that God’s love is alive and well.
Sincerely,
Ed
