The marvel of marriage

What a series of marvels (literal miracles, but still matters of wonder) is contained in the Genesis account of the origin of marriage.  Man is created from a clod of earth.  Man’s helper is created from a rib, “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.”  Luther points out that if the stars only came out once in a lifetime, we would all stand outdoors at night to stare at them, but because we can see them almost every night, no one even looks out the window at them.  It’s just as easy to take man and woman for granted because we see them all the time, but Genesis shows us how different they are, how miraculous is the creation of their differences.

Wouldn’t it seem logical that two human beings who are going to be united for life would be as similar as possible?  After all, don’t men feel best understood by other men, and aren’t women generally convinced that men cannot understand them (a sentiment many men share)?  Yet God brought these two very different creations together to become one flesh in marriage.  This union of man and woman is stronger because two different sexes bring their own created gifts to marriage and parenthood.  If “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” is true of our creation, we ought to say the same about God’s creation of marriage!