Thoughts on Marriage, Part 2

The second lesson that I learned is that the Christian ritual of marriage was designed to teach us about God.

Just as God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, a man and a woman become one when they unite in marriage. (See Genesis 2:24). This means that when I decide to get married, I am no longer just one person. While I certainly have the right to be and to do anything I want, and so does my husband, if we are living as "one", then we will make our decisions based on the good of our relationship, not on our own selfish desires.

In addition, marriage teaches us about the character of God. Jesus calls the church his "bride" throughout the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God used the life of a prophet, named Hosea, to teach us about his character. In this strange story, God tells Hosea to take a prostitute, Gomer, as his wife. Hosea marries her, and she repeatedly runs off with other men, pursuing her own desires, making her own living, independent of Hosea's needs, and breaking his heart repeatedly. He continues to seek after her, and he even buys her back with his own money. This is so like us and our relationship with God. He asks us for 1/10th of our money and 1/7th of our time. But we choose to do things our own way, to seek after our own desires. And he patiently runs after us, buying us back with his own blood.


When we give up our individual rights to do what is right for our families, we learn about sacrifice, as Jesus gave up his rights as the King of Kings to live on earth and take on our sins and shed his blood for us. When our spouses hurt us deeply, and we forgive them, we learn about how much it must hurt God when we turn from him, and what it must be like for him to forgive us.


Marriage is certainly about love, and relationship, but it is so much more than that. It is about trusting God, about understanding bigger truths that we would otherwise know. It is not a relic from days gone by, but a lasting sacriment, to teach us holy things.