Christmas Countdown, Day 13

Day 13: Micah 5:2

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,    though you are small among the clans of Judah,out of you will come for me    one who will be ruler over Israel,whose origins are from of old,    from ancient times.”

This passage reminds me that Jesus, the WORD was with God in the beginning.  God did not just create a Son and put Him on earth on a whim.  Jesus has always been.  He was born to us - new to earth - but he was not new to God.

His origins are from of old.
He is from ancient times.
He has been part of the plan of our salvation all along.
Sometimes I even wonder if Adam and Eve got to know Jesus before the fall.  Is that how we were created to live?  Always face-to-face with Him?

Creation/Marriage/Trinity

I know that the trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit - 3 in one.
I know how God created man and then made man into man and women.
I know that a man and woman become one in marriage.

Am I the last person on earth to make the connection with all three beautiful and mysterious stories?  I've heard the connection between creation and the Trinity.  I've heard the connection between the Trinity and marriage.  And I've heard the connection between creation and marriage.  But I'm just now connecting all three.

The entire history of all of this starts with the Trinity:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formlessand empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.          Genesis 1:1-2

God the Father, the Creator was there, but so was the Holy Spirit!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.        John 1:1-2

Jesus was there too!  They were all together and they were all one. This is my understanding of the Trinity - not something I can fully comprehend, but one of the mysteries of God to be understood when I see him face to face.
The Three in One have always, do now, and always will exist as one in communion with each other.  They work in agreement and in truth together and in their own ways.

God created man in His image.  His image is one of relationship and community - completeness.  He created man to be the same.

So God created mankind in his own image,    in the image of God he created them;    male and female he created them.          Gen 1:28

I've heard a couple of interpretations of this.  The first is that the writer of Genesis knew that he made woman later, so he wanted to clarify that women were created in His image as well.  
I like this better: God created man and woman as ONE from the beginning.  Both parts were there in the whole.  Man was alone though, so the parts needed to be separated to create partners for each other.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.                                                                    Gen 2:20-22

God made us in HIS image!  We are like Him.  We are to reflect Him.  Our instincts to love and be with others are because of our likeness to Him in the Trinity.  He knew we NEEDED each other to experience the completeness that is within His purpose for us.

Marriage is such a beautiful gift from God, but it can be so confusing!  How in the world can 2 completely different people with their own thoughts, their own sets of emotions, and their own backgrounds become ONE???

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.                                 Gen 2: 24

This matches the pattern of the Trinity - different, but one.  Not that I am comparing a human husband and wife to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but He said we are made in His image!
We are to pattern ourselves after them.  They are different in how they bless us, how they minister to us, and how they manifest themselves, but they are united in one being.
God knew what he was doing when he made us.  Marriage was created at the same time of our creation.  He made us as one and then in our own separate ways with this purpose in mind.
He did it on purpose!!!

I am now having new thoughts about the role of a husband and the role of a wife - not as an overlord and a door mat, but as the earthly image of Christ and his beloved church.  More on that next time!