Marriage as designed takes three.

Marriage was designed to be a relationship of God and Man and Woman.  Then the one rule God had made was broken and nature broken with it.  Now healthy marriage is against out broken nature.  Two broken people entering a covenant that requires them to be unselfish are bound for trouble.  The advantage a marriage of Christians is that they are working out their salvation (<em>read this as becoming more like Jesus</em>) and God makes the relationship a three way conversation.  So a relationship where both people are submitting themselves to God and trusting him to meet their needs has a much better chance of success.  The caveat is that we are still people in the process of healing, we still live in a broken world, and our submission is a sometime thing.

Jesus restored our ability to be governed, personally and martially, in direct relationship with God.  This type of marriage is a pretty good picture of how life was in the garden.  And the consistency and depth of our participation in that relationship remains an individual choice.

A couple that we hold very dear recently celebrated a milestone anniversary and I was moved to mark it with a verse. I am an incidental poet, meaning that I write them infrequently and under the pressure of response to strong feeling.  I believe this should exempt me from the requirement of any particular skill in the genre.  If you agree with me on this point I would be happy to confer with you.  If, on the other hand you believe that the attempt below appears to be collaboration between Moses and Dr Seuss; well then Id rather not discuss it.

<strong>Covenant One</strong>

You and You and You discussed and on the theme of three
Decided on a work of art called he and she and we
You made us in your image, though your medium was clay
You used the basest stuff of earth and knew that we would stray

Though You and You and You are One, he and she were two
You introduced yourself to them and said they’d be one too
You made a pact amongst yourself to reflect your love in pain
Through selfless love you made a way for he and she to gain

There is no power in he and she when we are me and me
You gave yourself so we could love, and mirror a trinity.