Tag Archives: “one flesh”

A God Plane Relationship

I understood the picture God provides of marriage almost 50 years ago, but only in the last few months after the loss of my wife of 52 years, have I maybe fully realised the meaning and deep significance of the scriptures in the Bible about the sacred institution of marriage, eg. Genesis 2:24, ‘Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.’

The words are simple enough, and we thank God for the creative act that perpetuates the human race, but its deeper significance eluded me until I experienced overwhelming grief. (See the last but one blog). The nearest thing I could compare it to would perhaps be a ‘panic attack’, where I felt such loss that it seemed a huge part of me had been torn away, leaving me gasping for breath, with rapid panting.

Truly, we had become one flesh in a much deeper way than I could possibly have imagined, as I tried to adjust to the loss and seeming emptiness.

The realisation that a man and a woman can become ‘one’ like that, is important, for Jesus Christ said He and His Father are similarly ‘one’, and that He will marry those who have been true Christians after their resurrection, before His Father’s Throne in heaven.

Then,  Christ and His Bride all also become  ‘one’,  with all that that means for mankind’s awesome future.  The results  will reveal the complex nature of God’s Plan for mankind, making my previous understanding of marriage seem very shallow indeed, and I look forward to writing about its detail in an article for this website.

 

Broken Heart Syndrome

It was interesting this week to learn from TV that we can indeed die from a broken heart. It seems that “heartbreak” significantly increases the risk of dying from a broken heart, especially in the first 30 days after a loved one dies, and the doctors now have a word for it, a Japanese word, “taktsubo  cardiomyopathy”, heartbreak syndrome, which has many of the symptoms of a heart attack brought on by the grief one can feel.

I can well believe it, because my wife of 52 years of happy marriage died recently, and having previous experienced a heart attack, I recognised some of the same symptoms in my grief. Actually, it did not surprise me, for I have long known  that in a close marriage the two lifelong partners become “one flesh”, Genesis 2:24, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ Consequently, with such a great loss, the one remaining can feel like there is a huge hole in ones own body – as though you are not fully there, for you have lost a part of yourself! Medical Science has now caught up, that if one succumbs to heartbreak completely, it can kill you!

I found the solution was to gradually concentrate on all the happy memories, and on the promise Christians have that, in a resurrection we will be re-united with our loved ones, as we arise from the sleep which is death. Giving oneself over fully to grief can lead to despair, and Christians have great hope in the future, and a calling and purpose which still remains, and helps us to avoid a broken heart.

For more on this, read our article, ‘What Happens when we Die? Page 2 ,  ‘Articles’.