Two Are Better Than One – by Eliezer Gonzalez
Feb 3, 2015 1466
The 20th of March is the day of my wedding anniversary together with my beautiful wife Ana. We were married 21 years ago.
I was reflecting on this passage from the wise man:
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
– Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 (NIV)
In my case, this verse is very true. I am a better person by far because of Ana.
It hasn’t been an easy twenty-one years. It certainly hasn’t been smooth sailing all the way, not in terms of our relationship, or with how we have coped with all the challenges that life has thrown at us. But here we are, still sailing through life together, a blessing to each other, and by the grace of God that blessings may also come to others.
We are still learning what it means to be “one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). The longer I am married the deeper and more mysterious this becomes. Here’s why: because apart from the meaning that marriage has in itself, it is meant to point us to the relationship, based on unbreakable sacrificial love, that Christ has with his people.
There’s no “ring” in that relationship, no “cake,” no tuxedos. Instead it is first revealed in a manger in Bethlehem, when Christ became “one flesh” – the flesh of humanity – with us. It explodes in all its glory when by virtue of that “one flesh,” Christ took our sins upon himself and died in our place as our representative and substitute on a rocky hill outside Jerusalem.
Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” – Matthew 1:23
Many of our friends are married. Many of them are single. Many are in unhappy relationships.
But here is a relationship we can all enjoy: “God with us.”
– Eliezer Gonzalez
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