|
Complete
Does marriage, especially to "the right person," complete the one who has been single? At first, the answer may well seem to be "yes," but the deeper answer is "no."
In the good plan of the God who created us, He has made man and woman so that they are (if we can, for a moment, get past whatever difficulties they may sometimes have) mysteriously, surprisingly, beautifully complementary to one another. Each has different strengths, abilities, instincts, and weaknesses, and these all balance each other between man and woman. The two are made and equipped to be matchable and mateable. They are also attractive and interesting to one another. It's not surprising, then, that so many of them (us) want to find one of the other kind to be a life partner. And when that does happen, it has the potential to be a very good thing, and often is.
Having a partner, a mate, a complementary counterpart, would seem to complete a person. The God who said, "It is not good for the man to be alone" must have had something important in mind. Indeed.
And yet, all of us on this earth need to be completed more completely, at another level altogether. We do go through life with a sense of something deeply needed, a sense of incompleteness that we can't explain. When we see a potential mate, we naturally think that is what we've been looking for. Upon getting married, perhaps, it might even seem that we've solved our problem, but sooner or later, we begin to realize that the incompleteness is still there. It is a much deeper incompleteness then we ordinarily realize. It is that we need to know the God who made us.
We don't naturally know Him. Our sin as humans has separated us from Him. He has, though, very kindly provided a way that we can be reconciled to Him and have the deepest relationship of all with Him. The way is through His Son. Although this is talked about all through the New Testament portion of the Bible, the Gospel of John is a very good place to begin to see it explained.
Knowing God through His Son is what solves the deep problem of being incomplete, though that is not the only, or even the most pressing, problem
that it solves. But being made right with God and knowing Him does complete us, no matter where we are in life. The Scriptures say to the Christian, "in Him [God's Son] you have been made complete . . ." (Col.2:10). That has a meaning for the single Christian: he or she is whole, now. The person who has been made spiritually whole is, if he or she marries, in the position to be the best possible mate he or she could be. A marriage of two spiritually whole individuals has the highest potential for fulfilling the purposes of marriage.
In any case, though, for the single or the married, the most important issues of all are settled when one has been made right with God and knows Him and lives for Him.
|
|