“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.
And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man.”
“And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman for she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:21-24).
The Biblical model is for a man and woman to marry. Any other arrangement is without scriptural foundation. “And Adam knew his wife and conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground” (Genesis 4:1-2). The natural form of procreation is between a husband and wife. When you break the basic structure, you ruin the natural production.
But who is this beautiful creature that God made for Adam? How does she fit into the natural beauty of daily living? Dream with me as I answer my own question.
“A sigh in the night . . . a smile across the room of strangers . . . A tug at a sleeve in the middle of a sad movie . . . This is my wife”.
“A pair of waiting arms for a weary warrior . . . one who repairs banners torn on daily battle fields . . . She cushions defeats and makes victories worthwhile . . . This is my wife”.
“Her smile can lighten a heavy heart . . . she can hold a hand and lend an ear . . . She can blow a kiss and ease a care . . . She can warm a cold room by just walking through the door. . . This is my wife”.
“A wife is a secret –sharer . . . She has a private smile that just belongs to a husband when they both recall a fond and secret memory . . . This is my wife”.
“A wife is an unpredictable creator . . . she can remember a word spoken in love twenty years ago . . . but can’t remember to pick up the cleaning . . . This is my wife”.
“She’s magic with a dish towel in her hand . . . romance running a vacuum cleaner . . . a pair of blue eyes with faith shinning out . . . a head of soft hair that bounces when she runs . . . a sad pout when things go wrong . . . This is my wife”.
“A sweetheart through all the year’s of a man’s life . . . a help meet when the load grows heavy . . . a friend when all the other friends have turned their heads away . . . This is my wife”.
“She looks beautiful in the strangest places . . . like standing in a doorway and reaching high to take a dish off the shelf . . . or straightening pillows on the sofa . . . or tucking a child into bed . . . Or standing in the rain waiting for the husband to open the car door. This is my wife”.
“She gives her husband a part of her heart, when he runs out of his . . . she rekindles the spark of dreams and makes a husband young again, with the twinkle in her eye. This is my wife”.
“She’s charm, love, enchantment, hope, pride, dreams, pleasure, laughter, delight, magic, and Christian womanhood, all wrapped into the most wonderful woman in the world. This is my wife”.
You that are my age remember “The Honeymooners”. It was Ralph, played by Jackie Gleason and his wife Alice, played by Audrey Meadows. He was always in the driver’s seat just before the crash. He always had the last word when all of his wild ideas to get rich went down in smoke. He got mad easily, lost his temper in every show, and one of his favorite lines was, “ Alice, someday”, he would smash his fist into his open hand and shout, “Boom, all the way to the moon”. Yet in the end he always kissed her and said, “Alice, you’re the greatest and would seal it with a kiss.
The one comic line I remember most was when he had turned red in the face, and shouted “Alice, I’m King, do you hear me Alice, I’m King, and you’re nothing”.
Her reply was unforgettable. She smirked and said, “Ha, your king over nothing!”
The words of the apostle Paul ring true when he wrote, “Submitting yourselves one to the other in the fear of God . . . husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; he that loves his wife, loves himself” (Ephesians 5:21,25,28).
Cut out this column and paste it on the refrigerator. Your food will taste better, your life will be happier, and your wife will always be smiling.