“And He answered them and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate’” (Matthew 19:4-6).

My thoughts are many this morning–all over the map, as when I read I think, and when I read often my emotions are aroused. So it is when I read these words, I think of my wife and our marriage, and I want to go and be with her.

Those who distort the created order do so to their own peril. Not only that, but they miss out on what is perhaps the greatest of all blessings this side of heaven. It is evident from the construction of the body, that God intended one of each sex to be joined to the other. And this in the confines of a singular relationship with each other that remains unbroken until death separates them.

What Jesus says here is a statement of fact. When a man and a woman come together and are thus joined; when their relationship is consummated by the act of intercourse, they verily become, as it were, one flesh. Though two bodies are visible, the truth of God says they are one. And that is the way God intends they function. As a unit.

These days so much of this has become perverted. Not only has sexual sin become the norm, and marriage itself being seen as unnecessary, even a thing of past, the relationship between a man and a woman is more about two independents than it is a unified whole. For this reason, and because there is so little knowledge of Scripture and the fear of the Lord, divorce is rampant.

When Barb and I were first married, we were not in the Lord Jesus. And marriage to us, or at least as it was to me, was something you could step into–and right out of if it didn’t seem to work out. We were guilty of all the things I’ve said to this point. We both had, and were until September 18, 1971, engaged in fornication. Yet God in His mercy and foresight, saw ahead; He knows the end from the beginning. He knew we both would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, and so He kept our marriage.

That was nearly 49 years ago.

God’s intent for marriage is, “until death do we part.” His plan extends beyond the mutual happiness of the two parties; that being the production of godly offspring.

A man and a woman was never intended by God to be alone. Of course, at the first it was man, by himself alone. And God saw that that was not good, so He created the woman for him and to be with him. So the woman was for the man, and the man for the woman. They are made for each other.

I believe in God-ordained relationships. I don’t believe marriage partners are random; instead, as is seen in my life, He hand-picks who shall marry whom, each a perfect match for the other. Perhaps this is one reason there is so much divorce. People marry outside of the will of God. They marry for the wrong reason. And, once married, they do not acknowledge God in their relationship.

Barb and me are a perfect match. Who would have ever guessed? Though in sin before marriage and without Christ for three years after, our relationship was God-ordained. God joined us together, and God Himself has kept us together. For this I am extremely grateful.