What God Has Joined Together

Scripture – Mark 10:6-12: ⁶“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ⁷‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, ⁸and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. ⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” ¹⁰When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. ¹¹He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. ¹²And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

Reflection: This is a passage that sticks itself right in the middle of family life in our North American culture today. Divorce is part of our culture. Thirty years ago I heard a preacher point out that our culture no longer believes in marriage as a permanent institution. That observation has been reinforced ever since.

I’ve performed a lot of weddings over the years. And very few of them, I suspect, involve couples who come to marriage with a clear sense that God has joined them together. People get married for all sorts of reasons. How often is God’s call to marriage part of that process? I don’t know. I just raise the question.

The fact is divorce has touched most all of us in various ways. I won’t go into much more because it gets a bit too personal. I’ll just say, sometimes divorce is a step to correct a decision that should never have been made. It does not separate what God has joined together.

God has a plan for every person. Sometimes that plan includes marriage – a union where two specific people come together in Christ so they become one. When that happens, it is a wonderful new creation.

Lord, it’s not my place to judge why people get married. It is my place to raise some questions for them to answer. Guide me in that as I meet with people and talk with them about marriage.