Jesus is My Husband...

Ann Voskamp's writing is filled with imagery and feeling. None of that was wasted on me when I read her Thanksgiving post recenty over at A Holy Experience.

"When it's over, I want to say; all my life I was a bride married to amazement." - Mary Oliver

The post welcomed the new for me. The current status of my life. The now that took so long to reach.

The fact that Jesus is my husband.


"Prince of Peace" by Akiane

"Mama always said it and she didn’t care what anyone thought of it: God was her husband. And that ain’t just some metaphor to get the Pharisees all in a prudish knot – it’s brazen Scripture. Take it or go ahead and leave it. We all get to choose our own bedfellows – and who we’ll give our soul to, who or what will get our life."

I'm standing with Ann's Mama. I've already decided.

The relationship that was not easily broken was the driving force behind my decision to be single, and stay single as long as God deems necessary. I needed that relationship, as I now need the friendship that has come from it, to keep me stayed on Jesus.

The relationship between a husband and wife is the equivalent to the relationship between God and His followers. Between Jesus and His church. That is why marriage between a man and a woman is sacred to Christians. It represents more than a wedding, living together, sex, reproduction. It represents a deeper connection. It represents the connecting of neurons and souls and emotions. It is a covenant.

My covenant is with Jesus. He has proven Himself by dying on the cross for me. By paving the way for me to live a guilt and shame free life with Him. He has stood by my side, and lived in my heart, through the most horrific years of my life. He has spoken to me when I needed to hear His voice. He has visited me when I have felt alone, to remind me that He is near. He has shared His heart with me and told me how He has grieved with me.

How could anyone not want that?

I know I do, and I need it more every day as I journey through life on earth.

Hosea 2:14-17 sums up my recent journey.

The Lord's Mercy on Israel

¹⁴ “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵ And there I will give her her vineyards
   and make the Valley of Achor^[a] a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
   as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’      and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ ¹⁷ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.

 

Footnotes:

a. Hosea 2:15 Achor means trouble; compare Joshua 7:26

He brought me back to Him. He took me into the harshest wilderness I have known. He spoke words of love and promise to me. He restored my dignity. He blessed me with hopefulness. He rekindled my faith. He walked with me out of the wilderness and into my freedom.

Jesus is my husband. And even if an earthly husband comes along, Jesus will always be my number one love. That is how it should be. That is how I want it to be.