For many, it’s that delicious time of year to escape the bleak, gray dregs of winter and head for a sunny beach. Spring break: oh, to feel the waves lapping at toes that finally have an excuse to be polished after hibernating in snow boots.
This week our Road Trip with the Girlfriends has us packing our bags for Paradise – though with Eden’s dress code, we won’t even need a carry-on! Chapter Two of The Cry of the Hidden Heart is entitled, “The Beloved in Paradise” … ahhh, pour a lemonade and pull up a chaise lounge.
Just think, out of the 1,189 chapters in the Bible, there’s only one complete chapter where man and woman enjoy a sinless life together. Over the next few weeks, we’ll see enough sin to make a reality show blush. For now though, we’re in Genesis 2, where everything was good.
Correction … almost everything was good in Eden. God saw that it was missing something – rather someone … WOMAN. (As we always suspected, we’re indispensable!) Adam had a perfect place to live, a perfect job, and perfect health, but God knew it was not good for him to be alone. He was lonely and needed help. But, not just any made-from-dust helper would do.
The way God created woman – from the man’s own body – shows that out of all creation, the husband/wife relationship is unique. Woman was made FROM and FOR man. Adam’s ecstatic cheer, “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh,” describes the oneness husband and wife are created to share. Made of the same identical substance, equal in every way, their union completed each other.
By joining them as “one flesh,” God formed in their union a new entity – a marriage. God’s enduring, mysterious formula for their marriage and ours is 1 + 1 = 1.
So, Girlfriends, here’s the question for us … if God saw that it wasn’t good for man to be alone in the perfection of Paradise, how much more do our husbands need us to be FOR THEM in this fallen world? Ask the Holy Spirit (and maybe even your husband!) where your man needs your encouragement and support.
Remember, you were custom-made for this!
We’d love to hear from you! Send us a Spring Break photo to post on our blog, whether you’re on a “Stay-cation,” a beach, or a mountain. Email it to us at hiddenheartministry@gmail.com.
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