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Throughout the first chapter of Genesis we read about Creation. How God took "nothing" and from it He created light. He separated that from darkness and gave us night and day. He created the earth and the sky. He divided the water from the land. He allowed the land to produce plants and trees. He put the moon and stars in the sky creating seasons and years. He filled the ocean with living creatures, put birds in the air, and created all the animals. And with each new created thing, Genesis tells us "And God saw that it was good."

Despite the fact that Adam lived in the perfect world if the Garden of Eden - God saw beneath the surface of Adam's life and concluded, "It is not good for the man to be alone." As a result, God created Eve—and the first marriage took place.

I've been thinking a lot about marriage lately.

Why you might ask?

I'm getting married in a couple of weeks.

I'm so very excited! I'm also a little nervous.

I was married once before. But it was before I knew Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior.

I've been single-again for over 10 years. These past 10 years have been an amazing journey. I thought a lot about marriage over the years - sometimes wanting it more than anything and other times swearing I'd never marry again. Through it all, God was definitely working on me. I discovered it was more important that I focus on becoming the best person I could be as opposed to finding the best person to marry. I think it took almost right up until the day I met my future husband to finally let go and let God be in charge in deciding who I would marry. I'd spent the year previous to our meeting trying all the new high-tech ways of meeting a mate. Please don't get me wrong, I personally don't think there's anything wrong with meeting someone through these channels - just be smart and cautious as you would in meeting any new person. In fact, I have several friends who have met their husbands online - primarily through online Christian communities. It's just that it didn't work for me.

About two weeks before I met my fiancé, I terminated all my online memberships. I was tired, exhausted and had come to the conclusion that if God wanted me to get married, He'd just have to deliver the man on my doorstep. Well, boy did God surprise me, because that's almost what happened. In a way that only God could design, He brought the most amazing man into my life.

Now don't get me wrong, after 10 years of being single, I was a bit cynical and not at all ready to jump on this bandwagon. He was persistent and I spent a lot of time praying. It took about a month or so of dating before I was ready to accept this as something "real." But as it became "real" to me, I quickly realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man.

I thought I had know "real" love before. But those were simply phony imitations. Love isn't the butterflies in your stomach, light-headed, "I think I'm going to faint" type of emotions we often see played out on TV and in movies. I'm afraid Hollywood for the most part has sold us a "lie" with regards to what love is and most of us have bought it hook, line and sinker. No wonder so many marriages fail - we've been sold a cheap imitation when we compare it to what God designed when He created marriage. And make no mistake... it is God who created marriage.

So for those cynics like myself who wonder "why marriage" I've done a little digging into the best book on the subject I could find - the Bible - to find out what God says on the subject - since He's the designer.

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he compared love in marriage to that of Jesus' love for the church!

Paul tells us that Jesus loved the church so much He gave Himself to it unselfishly and completely to make it holy and beautiful! When we serve one another in marriage we effectively mirror God's love.

Marriage is a sacred covenant designed and blessed by God. In marriage, God joins two persons into one.

Originally, God created marriage God to reflect His image in humanity. Because of humanity's fall into sin, I believe marriage now exists to magnify the worth, excellence, and glory of God in restoring His image in humanity through the gospel of Jesus Christ. In short, I believe human marriage exists to preach the gospel of God. I believe God intends every human marriage to re-present the divine marriage of God to the new, redeemed humanity (the Church, Christ's bride — see Ephesians 5:22-32) through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."

If you're thinking marriage is a huge responsibility... you're absolutely right!

It's not just about "love" and getting our needs met.

Ask someone to define marriage for you and a common definition might sound something like this "it's about two people seeking a peaceful co-existence together with the hope of obtaining some level of personal happiness." A lot of people take a very "need-centered" or should I say "me-centered" approach to marriage.

But turn to the Bible and a clearer picture forms. Marriage is a man and a woman on a life-long journey together towards God. Marriage is about change—it's about changing self and also changing your spouse. The purpose of marriage is that God wants to change all of us through it. And what helps us to change is when we begin to see that the hills and the valleys of the problems we live through together reveal the deeper character in our own hearts.

It's important, from the very beginning, to understand the whole idea of marriage—that it's not about making us feel good. That's not why God brought us together. It's not so you could have your needs met (although many of our needs are met in marriage) but the primary purpose is to change us—to make us more into the image of Christ.

So, in a couple of weeks, when I say "I do" - I'm not saying "husband, serve me, please me, fill all my needs." What I am saying is that "I love this man with all my heart. I want to put his needs above my own needs. I want to serve him. I want to see him become more like Christ."

I'm not saying "husband, I expect you to be perfect. I expect life to be easy. I expect you to meet all my expectations." What I am saying is "I love you and accept you. I know life will be hard at times, but I'm marrying you because I know that together our joy is multiplied and our griefs are divided. I know with Christ, we can and will overcome."

I dedicate this week's column to my future husband - Andrey. I love you sweetheart!

Thanks be to God for bringing us together at just the right time - be Andrey is more than I could have ever asked for or imagined.

"Inspiration For You" from Randy Mitchell

Our Children Are Our Future