With all the techno-toys available today, jigsaw puzzles don’t sell like they used to. But if you ever wanted to learn how go about attacking one, my grandma had the plan.
She told me that the best way was to dump all the pieces on the table and spend the next hour or so turning them all over, picking out the border pieces and massing the other pieces in color groups—blues, greens, browns, yellows, and pieces with a mixture of colors.
After the border pieces are assembled, you start looking to match two pieces. Finally, you make a match. Then the inevitable doubts arise, “Do these two pieces really fit? Will they stay together?” But pretty soon other pairs of pieces are assembled and little sections of the puzzle start taking shape.
Then you can see that the original pair meshes perfectly and fits neatly into the general scheme of the puzzle’s scene.
That’s how God’s design for marriage works. On the sixth day of creation God brought together two different people, one man and one woman, in an intimate union to form a matched pair. Neither male nor female is better or worse than the other, but like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle God designed them to supplement and complement one another in marriage.
God also designed marriage to be such a close and intimate union that the relationship between a husband and wife soars above and beyond any other ties to any other person.
So, when a person is married, the bond with their spouse is to be closer and more important than the connection with their parents, their friends, their job, and closer and more important than the connection with even their children.
Yes, even their children.
Jesus quoted God’s design from the first book of Scripture, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Matthew 19:5).
Marriage is the most significant earthly relationship. So if you aren’t married, that should inspire you to look carefully when eyeing up a potential spouse. If you are married, it should inspire you to refocus and recommit to your marriage and prioritize it over kids, parents, friends and job.
Jesus promises that husband and wife enjoy a bond with each that no other relationships enjoy when he says that they “become one flesh.”
Tomorrow, I’ll share the biggest promise you can find in the Bible about marriage—and it’s not the promise that husband or wife make to each other at their wedding.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, you value marriage and give your promises to husbands and wives—even though you were not married. Bless marriages in our world, and bless singles, those divorced, blended families and the widowed. May we all grow in our appreciation for your marriage design. Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: Slow down, use the PRAY acronym.
- Praise (single or married, tell God what you appreciate about the design of marriage)
- Repent (confess your sins of wanting your own design for relationships that does not match God’s design for marriage, trust in his promises of forgiveness)
- Ask (single or married, ask God to bless you in ways you believe are good and holy)
- Yield (talk to God about the next step after you say “Amen,” how you want faith to lead the way, how you are willing to be part of his answer and see it develop for your good)
