Marriage

Blogger is being so stupid, I've started this post about three times and tried to save it because I know it's going to be a long post, and it's lost it! Never mind, we start again.

I promised this post ages ago and promptly forgot my musings, but a good thread on the forum reminded me so here it is.

Marriage, in my humble unmarried opinion, is an amazing thing, and so much better and more serious than society portrays it. My family are a pretty good example of what seems to happen an awful lot. My parents were legally married, shared a house, parented two children, and yet my mum beleives that they were not truly married in the sight of God. Mum believes a lot of strange things, but the more I think about it, the more I agree with her on this one.

As a result, I set a lot more store by the spiritual union that marriage means, rather than the legal aspect. I can see how they work together, but they are definately not the same, and I don't think God is much bothered by our human legalities.

I've already written this bit on the forum, but it's worth writing again because God must be what makes spiritual marriage work. It's God's intention for us to thrive in community, and experience deep communion with him and each other. Father, Son and Holy Spirit all commune with each other within God, and we're created in the image of God. That's why the fall was so awful, it destroyed community/communion on earth:

- humans were cut off from God (Gen 3:8)
- humans were cut off from each other (Gen 3:12)
- humans were isolated from themselves resulting in loneliness, lack of meaning/purpose etc
- the relationship between humans and nature was destroyed (Gen 3:15, 17-18)

Marriage involves three poeple - man, woman and God - and that when all three are communing with each other, it's an amazing reflection of God and his own community within himself, and anything that reflects God is good. When I use the word 'to commune' or 'communing' I mean the kind of relationship that happens at communion (or the Lord's table, taking bread and wine, whatever you call it) - it's when we can come to God and have a harmonious, perfect relationship and interaction with him and everything is hunkydory despite our sin. (Read some of JB Torrance or Tom Smail for more on that).

I think Catholics have got the meaning of marriage pretty much right. This is from Wikipedia:

Catholic theology teaches that a validly contracted marriage is accompanied by
divine ratification, creating an indissoluble union; therefore, no divorce
is possible.

And I guess if the marriage is truly in the sight of God and has him involved, there shouldn't be any need for divorce, even if goes a bit wrong at some points. After all, loving each other isn't about being in love, it's about perseverance, forgiveness and all the hard stuff Valentine's Day doesn't tell you about.

In summary, marriage must take a lot of thought and even bigger doses of God, wisdom and commitment. I'm nervously but excitedly looking forward to it. Comments from experienced people welcome!