Morning Moments

A Close Separateness - THAT is what intimacy is. It means I can share anything and everything with the "partner" in our relationship without fear of rejection or criticism, and vice versa. We often think of intercourse as intimacy, but it is NOT! If it were, when the sex went out the intimacy went out. THAT is the world view of the LOST! Besides, if sex is intimacy, then we could never be intimate with anyone other than our marital partner, and such is not the case.

When God took the best part of man to make the woman, some Hebrew scholars believe it was not a rib from the side, but a rib that covered the stomach, which is the most vulnerable part of man. Hit him in the stomach and you knock the "wind" or "breath" out of him. God made us different and we must acknowledge it. Did you ever notice that women without men get along better that men without women. When an elderly man loses in death his wife, he has a much harder time that a woman who loses in death her husband. He often dies; she often takes a cruise with her friends:)

Be that as it may, God's intention for a married couple is to BOND and to maintain intimacy (a close separateness, where each honors the other and protects each other. Think about the "rib" thing I mentioned. In the Bible, the stomach is associated with the emotions. It is why when one gets really excited or upset it effects the stomach. NOW let's do some "righteous reasoning". Allow me to use the physical to illustrate the spiritual.

If the rib of Adam that was used to make Eve was really the "protector" of the stomach, and the stomach was associated with emotions, then it would stand to reason that woman would be more emotional than man, and that man would need her to help him emotionally. Men are logical, categorical, and not basically emotional. Not so with a woman. She is basically emotional. She sees everything from an emotional perspective. With all this in mind, doesn't it stand to reason that the part of man that is lacking, she possesses, and that he desperately needs her to complete him. Could that be why God says, "He who FINDS a wife FINDS a good thing?

CONCLUSION:) Intimacy in a marriage or in any other relationship demands a healthy respect for the lack in one's life that the other fills. In the words of Austin Powers to Mini Me, "you complete me!" Hey, that would make me eat the fruit too:) She gave to her husband with her and he did eat. Listen, any man who finds a completeness in a woman doesn't want to let her get away:)

PRAYER: Please Precious Father, help us as men to see that we can never be intimate in our marriage without that "close separateness." Teach us that we need our wives to protect the part of us that is most vulnerable. Teach us to honor and respect the differences, and to develop a "hearing heart" toward then.