The primacy of our marriages

Today is my wife and I's anniversary. We usually take some time off every year to get away for a day or three and just spend concentrated time together. Since we are still working with newborns we thought it prudent to delay taking some time off. But in honor of the great gift that God has given us in marriage it seemed appropriate to step back and dwell a bit on what it so appropriately draws our hearts to do. The married couple have a great responsibility before God. They are supposed to love each other. The husband's love should manifest itself in loving her as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25). The wife's love should manifest itself in submission to and respect for her husband as she would submit to and respect Christ (Ephesians 5:22-24). Why do these two things need to be so primarily in place??? Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:31-32 that the primary reason for marriage even existing in the first place is to reflect or be a shadow of Christ relationship to His bride the church. Because marriage and Christian marriage in particular reflects Christ relationship to His bride then the Christian married couple should be concerned about what their actions say about the church. You see our marriages are primary in reflecting the diversity and unity that is found in the God head. This is a sacred and honorable opportunity. How we personally pursue God will impact our understanding of how important this symbol is to God and ultimately how important this symbol is to us. You see if we men as part of Christ's bride love and respect who He is then what He says will be of vital importance to us. We will be looking to do what we know pleases God because if we really love someone we are always looking to do what pleases them. Do we love God? Are we living a life where everything we do is seen through a focus on our Lord Jesus Christ? If we are doing this then our desire will be to see our marriages as primary. What this means is that our marriages are more important because of what they symbolize than just about any other relationship we have. Our children and friends, our jobs, our hobbies, should all come as a second place finish at best when compared to our marriage. We must guard the symbol because it speaks to those around us about the greatness of our Lord Jesus. It shows them that our relationship with Him is important because our relationship with our wives is important. You see the thing that should drive this enhanced pursuit of the relationship is the relationship with Jesus. In knowing and loving our spouses we show the world that we value things as important that God Himself values as important. Lets work on having a passionate Biblical love in our marriages this is another way in which we can love God.