God's Amazing Creation

Yesterday, my family of five (along with Grandma and Grandpa) loaded up the minivan at 7am to head off on a three and a half hour car ride to The Creation Musuem (just outside of Cincinnati, Oh in Northern Ky.). It was a wonderful experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone passing through that part of the country on any long trip. (They even have fabulous rates for active duty military and their dependents!)

This is a musuem created by (if I remember correctly) a former high school science teacher who was discouraged that all the science museums out there are based on the theory of evolution. He is a Christian, and he wanted to present a scientific and historical view of our world based on God's Word..... and I would like to add that he did a wonderful job. Everything was beautiful.... the films, the art, the walk through sets.... and at every step, he compared God's word and truth with how scientists have portrayed how our world began. How old is our Earth really? Did dinosaurs live at the same time as man? How was the ark built? How was the geology of the earth created, formed, and changed throughout the years?

Of course, much of the information presented was not new to me, but there were several things I did learn that I did not know before. And if you have ever tried to compare what you believe about Creation with other scientific principles (you know, trying to figure out how it all works together... is it really 6 24-hour days of creation, or could God's day have been millions of years? for example).... they did a great job comparing each point and lining everything up so it made sense.

It did get me thinking last night about a conversation I had a couple of weeks ago (and even one of my recent posts). God created Adam, and then He created Eve to be Adam's partner. He created us each differently, but each with His characteristics. He created us to be partners, each having their own jobs that together create one whole (this was what I was talking about some in my former post).

In my conversation recently with a friend, we were talking about how our husbands should be our best friends and the source of filling our emotional needs. We agreed that it is good to have other friendships, but ultimately, our spouse should be the fulfillment we need in life, and if we are spending too much time and energy on someone other than our spouse (whether the friend is male or female), then our needs are possibly being met in ways they shouldn't.

So I started thinking about the scenes in the museum with Adam and Eve together, and a funny thought hit me. God didn't create Adam and then bring in a best friend for him.... his best buddy, best pal.... no, he gave him a wife. And He didn't create Eve and then bring in a gaggle of girlfriends for her, instead He gave her a husband.

I remember reading in my secular days about how men are not designed to provide emotional fulfillment to their wives, that is what other women are for. The example given was to look at our past, in tribal days, when men went off hunting all day and the women stayed together cooking, cleaning, sewing, childrearing.... talking all day and getting "their emotional needs met". Basically, the point was that the reason why marriages were so strained was because men were expected to jump in and do something (take care of wife's emotional needs) that they weren't supposed to do.

But the problem with this scenario is this.... God created Adam and Eve. Period. He gave Adam a wife to respect and care for him, to raise his children with him. God knew that Adam needed a wife and companion, a helper. But God also knew what emotional needs Eve would have as well, and I do not think he intended on "girfriends" to meet them, or else He would have created them right there in the garden, right?

God has blessed me with a wonderful "Adam".... my husband is loving and caring, and he is very concerned with my emotional needs. He is my best friend, and I am his. I try to take care of him to the best of my ability, and if you ask him he'll say I do a pretty good job. I think that we embody in our marriage the ideal God had in mind for the marriage relationship..... love, companionship, friendship, partnership. Paul is my top priority (after God, of course), and I am his. Sometimes, though, as we look at all the unhappy and unhealthy relationships around us (in the world and even in the Christian circles), we wonder how we got so lucky as to figure it all out? How did we stumble across the key that so many others have searched for but haven't found? But we know the real answer....we didn't "get lucky" or stumble across anything, God gave us the key, and we have learned how to use it.

Lord God, thank you for giving me the most wonderful husband (for me) in the whole world! Help me be the wife and friend he needs me to be for him, and bless our time together. Father, I ask that you would reach out to married couples everywhere who are struggling, and remind them of your love for them. Show them that they can turn to each other instead of others outside of their relationship. Remind them of your design for marriage, and that you can give them everything they need to grow in you. I love you, Jesus! Amen.