“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”   This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Ephesians 5:31 – 33

Mystery, indeed.  If I try to explain why it is that I love Anna Ruth so, I find no words to express my feelings.  I am simply overwhelmed.  Love does not lend itself to analysis. Not that I cannot list a dozen of her admirable qualities, and even more.  It is just that the deepest emotions and love feelings simply cannot possibly state what I know, and feel, but cannot fully explain.  This feeling is no doubt universal among human beings, made even more marvelous by Christian faith and humility.

Having made this point about the mystery of the relationship between lovers, life-long lovers, Paul turns our thoughts to what he is really writing about, husband and wife relationships, but to a similar but much more profound mystery, Christ and the church.  Human marriage casts a certain light on this mystery but it is far greater than the mind can imagine or that the imagination can even begin to grasp.

I rejoice greatly in my love for Anna Ruth. Rightly so.  But I rejoice even more when I think that I am, in a more profound sense, “married” to Christ.  That God should love me as I love Anna Ruth simply lets me speechless.  That is a marriage that is hard for me to believe, that Jesus Christ wants me as his intimate “spouse,” if I may use that word. I believe that is what Paul says, and as overwhelmed as he.