jealous God

We’ve been married for 10 years! Carla and I celebrated a decade of marriage this past weekend with a wonderful trip to Leavenworth…alone! Oh, man, that was sure nice. It was so great to spend one-on-one time with just Carla. That’s been quite a challenge lately and I found myself really missing her.

Neither of us have ever been the jealous type, but we just earnestly missed each other. I tend to get caught up in my pastor role, doing church stuff. Carla tends to get caught up in her mommy role, doing house stuff. And like just about every other couple on the planet, we get sucked into the busyness of life and find ourselves longing for more husband/wife time. Simply because I love Carla so much, I can find myself feeling a little jealous. I would never be satisfied with only part of my wife. I don’t want half or even 99% of Carla. I love her so deeply, cherish every moment we get to spend together and always desire more. In that sense, I am a very jealous husband. And so is God.

We, the people of God, are called the Bride of Christ (check out Revelation 21). He is our Groom, our Husband. If we have chosen to love and follow Jesus, if we call ourselves “Christians,” we are married to Him. And we cannot fathom the depths of love He feels for us. He too cherishes every moment and always desires more. God is not satisfied with only part or even most of us. He wants all of us! He is a jealous God!

So what should this heavenly union look like? How do we ensure a good, strong marriage with God? Well, not to oversimplify, but let’s compare the heavenly relationship to the earthly.

• Carla and I are in constant communication, every day. In fact, to ensure that we’re really hearing each other well and making wise decisions together, we schedule regular family meetings. And there are no secrets in our marriage. She knows every detail of my life and I know every detail of hers—every one. How often do we communicate with God? What is the quality of those conversations?
• Carla and I make time to go on dates together. Yes, it can be difficult to set aside the time and money, but we do it because it’s a priority to us. Even a few hours alone together can be so refreshing. Do we ever set aside the time and money to spend one-on-one time with God? What are those “dates” with God like?
• Carla and I help each other. She’s actually better at this than I am, but we earnestly try to be one another’s best partner and biggest supporter. She is my right arm when it comes to anything church related. I lean on her almost to a fault. For my part, I try to help her with anything house related. We’re in this thing together. We’re a team. Are we on God’s team? Does He do all the work and we reap all the benefits? When was the last time we asked Him how we could help?
• Carla and I loved our anniversary trip. We’ve made a commitment to do that more often because we could immediately tell it was healthy for our marriage. It was a dedicated chunk of time where we could focus on each other. We both felt like we were back in college, dating. It was thrilling and rejuvenating. Do we ever dedicate an entire day or weekend to God? What would it look like to spend that much time with our heavenly Spouse?

When God gave us the Ten Commandments, He acknowledged that He was jealous (see Exodus 20:5). He let us know, right from the start, that He wants us completely, body and soul. He won’t be satisfied with anything else. And, lest we forget, He already gave Himself to us completely, body and soul. I wonder what we will give Him in return.