day no. 15,185: better off for having been broken

"The woman is receptive and does not place anything within the man, just as Christ gives us
himself while we can give nothing to Christ in return." -- Matthew Pennock, As a Man Is so Is His Strength

Ephesians 5:31-32
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Marriage is meant as a metaphor to point us to the greater spiritual reality of God's plan revealed to us in Christ and His church. This has always been the meaning of marriage as evidenced by Genesis 2:24 being the foundation of Paul's appeal in the verses above.

In marriage, the creation and design for men and women is observed in their one flesh relationship. Man was made first. Man was then broken and the women was made. She was then brought back to the man and they were reunited. In other words, Adam was put to sleep and his rib was removed from him, but then his rib was made into a woman and brought back to him. So in the end, Adam has his rib back, but the oneness he has as a result of being broken is better than the oneness he had prior to it. He is one again, but better off for having been broken. The rib is better as a woman than it was as a rib.

And so in similar vein, God speaks ex nihilo and makes not god. He creates distinction. He takes something of out His mind and breaks it off into something else, something not god, the high water mark of distinction following light and not light, day and not day, water and not water, and man and not man. He then brings the man back into relation with Himself by being broken in Christ. And the oneness achieved through the brokenness of Jesus is somehow better than the oneness of the created state of walking with God in the garden. Then God was with them in harmony, now there is harmony, but also unity with His Spirit residing inside the ones He walks with. 

The sexual act is a metaphor of this reality. It is the principle incarnate. The man enters into the woman, he plants his seed in her. In her a child is fertilized, matured, nourished and delivered and then that child is brought back to the father and united back to him, somehow better for having been separated. The women experiences a complementary version of the same coin. She receives the man, and something new happens inside her. It grows in her and along with her and she ultimately endures much pain and difficulty in bringing it to full maturity. Once born, it's cord is cut, but it's body is returned to her to nurse, somehow closer for having been made separated with the second union being closer than the one they enjoyed during gestation.