Brother Clark writes of the majesty of marriage, and the many evidences we have that God is indeed married, and further, could not have become God without His other female half.
A quote from Elder Erastus Snow: "Deity consists of man and woman. How do you know? I only repeat what he says of himself; that he created man in the image of God, male and female created he them ... There can be no God except he is composed of the man and the woman united, and there is not in all the eternities that exist, nor ever will be, a God in any other way."
This sheds new light for me on the importance of marriage and the sanctity of unity between us. Eldon is my other half, the missing element of my own godhood. Man was not meant to be alone, and it is my belief that we cannot fulfill the measure of our creation alone. We need a companion. We are allowed to select those companions and then we make covenants to remain with each other. Always.
There were so many times early in our marriage when divorce seemed the only possible hope for happiness. We were miserable together. But we honored the eternal nature of our covenants and worked for unity. Now, I have tears in my eyes as I type this because the Lord has honored our devotion and blessed us with a unity and an elated and joyful kind of love I had never even imagined. Satan attacks our marriages because he knows that we cannot reach our highest aspirations of becoming like God if we destroy them.
(Yes, sometimes divorce is needful. But hardly ever, in my opinion. Selfishness is not a good enough reason to break covenants. I understand the desire to repent of your marriage choice ... But it is a faithless desire. Our Father in Heaven, the supreme Creator, will create a way for us all to have fulfilling marriages. I don't intend to sound harsh or unfeeling ... It's just a very sensitive topic for me and I have an almost frantic urgency about it. I don't want everyone to struggle as I did in my marriage, but I do believe if God would help me He will help others too. My marital happiness is the grandest miracle of my life. It occurs to me that if one of the 5,000 were in the presence of someone who was starving, they might point their friend in the direction of He who once filled their own empty belly with His loving power. This is the testimony in me of marriage.)
One other thought before I get Chiara from her nap. This is entirely my own thought, and rather unfounded as I can see for myself all the holes in the logic. But as I read Brother Clark's research about the command God gave to Adam and Eve not to partake of the fruit, he mentioned the pronoun "thou" is singular. He suggested that perhaps the Father was speaking to Adam specifically, and then quoted some ideas of others. What struck me as a lovely little thought was this: What if God were saying, "Don't make the decision to partake of the fruit alone. Don't choose mortality alone."? I can argue against myself too, so don't be alarmed. I don't consider this to be some grand revelation. :) But it touched me to think that God would want Adam and Eve to remain together. "Thou mayest choose for thyself" the Lord says, but in His heart I think He hoped they would choose for and with each other. That's all.
Hi! I'm Emily from The Lioness at the Gate -- thanks for linking to the blog! Sometimes I think we're just crazy over there, but oh well. Good review of this book. Interestingly, my husband recently wondered the same thing about only Adam being commanded to not partake of the fruit. Maybe you guys are on to something.
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