Just picked up Love and War by John and Stasi Eldridge. So
far, this is the best book on marriage I’ve ever read. The Eldridge’s argue
that the Bible begins and ends with marriage (Gen 2:21-25; Rev 21:1-2;9) and
that in a very mystical sense marriage is a picture of the Kingdom of God - the
marriage of Christ and his church (Eph 5).
God is a great lover, and he created marriage to play out on this earth a daily, living, breathing portrait of the intimacy he longs for his people. This is why it has such a central role. It is a kind of incarnation, a passion play about the love and union between Jesus and his beloved. Which might help you appreciate why the fury of hell has been unleashed against it. God is telling a love story and the setting is war.
There are many great books on marriage that give excellent advice on communication, conflict resolution, keeping the romance alive, etc. What I love about this book is that it places marriage within a much larger story. The story God is telling, the story that explains our lives, the story in which all other stories find their meaning. And in that story marriage is a quest, an adventure, a battle to be fought together.
Marriage is difficult, because marriage is opposed. Marriage is beautiful, because in the midst of this war-torn world, marriage is a picture of God’s true love.
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