God’s Version of Superglue
Bible Reading: Genesis 2:18-25
A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Genesis 2:24
IF YOU WANT to have a long-lasting, love-filled marriage someday, you will need one special ingredient: superglue.
Genesis 2:24 commands a man to be glued to his wife. That’s what the word ”joined” literally means. When husband and wife are glued together with God’s superglue, they become one in a marriage that will last.
Falling in love-the emotional side of love-isn’t strong enough to glue a couple together. Even in the best marriages, feelings come and go. They don’t make an inseparable marriage. The only kind of glue that holds a marriage together is the glue of commitment. “Oh,” you say, “you mean having a marriage ceremony.” No! Saying “I do” to a minister and signing a marriage license are part of it, but commitment is way deeper than that.
Commitment means that you choose to give yourself to your partner in marriage as a permanent gift -and the two of you give yourselves to God as one. That kind of glue puts people together so that they can endure all the pressing, pulling, stretching, and twisting that life inflicts on them. Unless a man and woman are glued together by a commitment made to each other in the sight of God, all the romantic feelings in the world can’t keep their marriage secure.
Someday your prince or princess will probably come. You’ll see pink hearts explode in the sky. And you’ll swear that you’re in heaven whenever you’re with that special person. That’s the falling in love thing, and it’s a beautiful experience. But putting a marriage together on that feeling alone is like trying to hold two bricks together with cellophane tape. It can’t take the stresses of life.
Because the indestructible glue of commitment is needed to stick two people together in marriage, every person in love needs to wait until the hearts fade long enough to ask himself or herself a huge question before he or she says “I do.” Every potential bride or groom needs to pop this question: “Am I ready to glue myself to this person for keeps?”
I hope you fall in love someday. But I pray that you stick yourself to your marriage partner with the glue of your wholehearted commitment. To paraphrase Jesus’ words, “Don’t separate by divorce what God has glued together through your commitment.”
REFLECT: What are you counting on to keep your marriage together someday?
PRAY: Ask God to teach you what true, loving commitment looks like.