Jump Start # 2663

Genesis 2:22 “Then the Lord god fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.”

I have a wedding to do in a few days. It’s going to be a great wedding. The couple are young, in love and both N.T. Christians. That’s all the right ingredients for a wonderful journey together. And, they’ve asked me to do the ceremony.

Thoughts of weddings always takes me back to the first one—Adam and Eve. There wasn’t actually a wedding ceremony, not like we are accustomed to. Eve didn’t have any earthly dad to walk her down the isle. There was no preacher around to say a few words. There was no courthouse to get a wedding license. But, in what truly matters, God joined this couple together and every proper wedding since, owes it’s origin back to what God did.

There are several thoughts here about the occasion of the first wedding:

First, Adam didn’t get to meet Eve and begin a friendship as we do. God presented Eve to Adam. I’m not sure if Adam even understood what was missing in his life. He named the animals and saw that the animals were not like he was. They can be friendly, fetch a ball, purr if you pet them, but they can’t engage in deep conversation. They can’t remind you what you ought to do. They can’t encourage as another human can. But did Adam realize that he needed a wife? Not sure about that.

Second, it is interesting that God took a rib out of Adam to make Eve. He didn’t have to. This was the first medical surgery. If God could make Adam out of the dust, why not make Eve out of the dust? Could it be to illustrate a connection, a partnership, a togetherness in their relationship. God took a rib, not a bone from the foot and not a piece of Adam’s head. Ribs are on the side and side by side we walk through life together. There was a connection. Eve came from Adam. Again, I’m not sure if God asked Adam about donating a rib for this process, but he had a personal interest in all of this.

Third, Adam and Eve were truly the perfect couple. They were the only perfect couple. Perfect in that there was no sin in the world. Perfect in that they had no history, baggage, garbage, or issues that they carried with them. They did not have a past. They did not have families to deal with. There was no in-laws. And, yet, this perfect couple became imperfect. And, every couple since has been imperfect. We are two broken people that Jesus has molded and fixed. Our sins is what hurts our marriages the most. Our sins and the way we deal with those sins and forgiveness has much to do with how functional or dysfunctional our relationships will be.

Fourth, Adam only had God as a role model for his marriage. The Lord must have told Adam what was expected and how he was to lead that marriage. Eve was made to be suitable to Adam. She was to compliment what was missing in his life. God did not make Eve to be independent. Eve wasn’t to be Adam’s mother. She wasn’t to be a business partner. God created Eve to be a wife. Adam and Eve started as a married couple. They weren’t neighbors who met. They weren’t co-workers who worked beside each other for months. They weren’t in school and their eyes caught each other one day. Those are our stories. We ask, “How did you meet?” There is a story. For Adam, he woke up and Eve and was there.

Fifth, God didn’t create three or four women and had Adam pick the one he really liked. There was no contest here. There really was no choice. Eve was it. God, having made Adam knew how to make Eve. Dark hair or blonde? What about a red head? Blue eyes? How tall? Could she cook? Those are the things that come from our dating. Not Adam. God made Eve and He made her in a way to function, survive and contribute to life. Eve was it and that’s how God planned it.

Sixth, our times places too much emphasis upon the outside and often gives very little thought to what is on the inside. Laughing, having a good time, making one feel good seems to be high on the list of what many think are important. So little emphasis is given to what does the person think about the Lord? Does the person even know the Lord? Do they walk with the Lord? Troubles come when the principles of the N.T. are not practiced in a marriage such as the golden rule. Grace, forgiveness, hope, trust are the foundation stones that a marriage ought to be based upon. The insides and the outsides usually change with time. The insides get better and better. And, the love in a marriage grows richer and richer when the Lord is at the center of our hearts.

Finally, I have wondered what Adam and Eve talked about those first few days. The weather was perfect. The garden was perfect. They were perfect. There were no kids, neighbors, or traffic to complain about. Politics did not exist. There was no shopping to be done. No stock market. No ballgames. There was no TV, movies or books to be read. There was no one else around. Maybe they just talked about each other. Maybe they talked about the Lord. We can spend too much time talking about things we have no control over and can do nothing about except complain. Could it be in the garden, the conversations were rich, warm and wonderful and about substance.

Every marriage has a starting point—it’s the wedding. Big weddings and little weddings. Fancy weddings and simple weddings. Very expensive weddings and the kind where everyone chips in and helps out. But the wedding is just the start. Some put so much into the wedding that they forget that there is a marriage to be lived afterwards.

And, when things are good, right and following the Lord, weddings remind us that if we could do it all over again, we’d do it all over again!

Roger