Topic: THE BEAUTY OF INTERDEPENDENCE
THEME SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 2:25 (KJV)
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
MESSAGE:
We discovered in our previous devotion, that, marriage is expected to operate at the interdependence phase of human relationship. The covenant of interdependence is when an independent man and an independent woman both agree to come together for companionship. Interdependence means, “I depend on you, and you depend on me; and both of us have agreed and covenanted to do so for our mutual benefit.” Although the couple are mature and therefore have attained independence, the marriage itself cannot work if they remain independent of each other. Marriage works at interdependence.
Our theme Scripture says, “…they were BOTH NAKED…” In case someone says he/she doesn’t know who the Scripture referred to as “both”, the Scripture went further to say, “…the man and his wife…” Then, the Scripture finally said, “…and were not ashamed.” Both the man and his wife were naked and not ashamed.
Nakedness is a picture of openness and vulnerability. The marriage covenant requires the man and his wife to be open to each other. Notice, one wasn’t naked while the other was clothed. They were BOTH NAKED! If one is open but the other has some skeleton hidden in his/her cupboard, the marriage covenant cannot work. It takes two to tango. There are some things you’d wish to keep to yourself, but so long as both man and woman have agreed and covenanted to marry, there’s nothing to hide any longer; and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. This is where the vulnerability comes in. It’s beautiful when both husband and wife are vulnerable to each other, because they’ll complement each other. On the other hand, it’s painful when one is vulnerable, but the other is independent. Of course, I admit that certain informations made known to one’s spouse can trigger a negative chain reaction; but that’s why you’d need to be properly counseled before you say, “I do!” If you are not ready to live interdependently with a spouse, you’re not ready to marry!
Marriage is not fun and games; and the marriage covenant is not a joke. Entering the marriage covenant means both husband and wife are ready to lay bare their strengths and weaknesses through constant and continuous communication.
The beautiful thing is that, when both husband and wife are not ashamed to be open and vulnerable to each other, there’s no weakness of one, that cannot be covered by the strength of the other. That’s the beauty of interdependence.