Two are Better than One

You’ve seen them in the check-out lane at Meijer. They whisper sweet somethings in your ear as you slowly roll your cart along the conveyor belt. As you turn your back on them, you look at your food, satisfied with the fruit and veg on the belt and plan for tonight’s quick supper as you eye the box of pasta and jar of sauce. Still, sometimes it is impossible to ignore their siren song and the inevitable happens. A candy bar ends up in your cart. You slip it in your purse as you pay, and you polish it off before you pick up the kids from preschool. There are perks to being the grown up. One of them is that you don’t always have to act like one and nobody needs to know!

A favorite of mine (and let’s face it, there are lots of favorites when chocolate is involved!) is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. You can’t go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter and you can’t go wrong with the sweet, two for one deal in that little package. Two are better than one. Seriously. Twice as nice.

Enjoying my treat, I am reminded of a great passage from Ecclesiastes, penned by the wise King Solomon, divinely inspired by the Living God. I believe the broadest application of the verses is for friendship in general, but I can’t help but see how it applies to our closest earthly relationship, our marriage.
Two are better than one,
   because they have a good return for their work:
10 If one falls down,
   his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
   and has no one to help him up!
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
   But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
   two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Eccl. 4:9-12

Two are better than one. In the garden of Eden, when God created Adam, He saw that it was good, but He also said it was not good that Adam should not have anyone like him. So God created Eve to be like Adam. More than that, she was created to help him. What a lovely, wonderful plan God had! He foreknew the need Adam would have to experience the close, human connection with one like him in marriage, and God also understood that He was calling Adam to do some big, important things and he would do well with someone to come alongside him as he endeavored to obey his Maker. The simple fact is that God, Himself, is sufficient for all that we need. However, He saw fit to give us others in our lives to be one avenue through which He meets those needs.

As wives, we have the special privilege of walking alongside these men God has given us and holding their hands, eyes on theirs, and saying to them what God says to each of us, with conviction and commitment, “When we work together we will accomplish much, so let me help you. When you stumble, I will be there, not to point one finger at you, but to reach down with all five, hand spread, grip firm, and pull you back to your feet. When the shadows and dark invade and you can’t see what lies ahead, and you face the frightful, swirling storms of life, I will be there beside you to help fight off the bitterness, the biting wind, the fear, the cold. I will warm you with my words and with my presence. When you do battle, and your foe is too great for one, I will not desert you. We will fight, shoulder to shoulder or back to back and together we will defend ourselves, our marriage, our family. When we go forward, day by day, moment by moment, into the perilous, exciting, sometimes dangerous world, I will not leave your side. When the going gets hard, I will stay. I will fight for you. I won’t quit. Instead, you will hear my words in your ears, reminding you that together we can face what comes. I will remind you most importantly, that together means not just you and me, but you, me, and the awesome, powerful, sufficient, changeless, Mighty God who made us and gave us to each other, forming a three stranded cord that is not easily broken.”

Truly, peanut butter cups are a sweet treat and two are definitely better than one, but marriage is sweeter, and though, like chocolate, there can sometimes be a darker, bitter side, we will stick. Like the peanut butter on the roofs of our mouths, we will stick and remember that indeed, two are better than one.