A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

As equal yet distinct persons, Adam and Eve reflected the relational aspects of God’s triune nature. And because Eve’s body was formed from Adam’s rib, they also mirrored God’s oneness. They were literally of one flesh and Adam’s name for Eve reflected this: “She shall be called Woman [Ishah], because she was taken out of Man [Ish]” (Genesis 2:23, NASB). As the Father, Son, and Spirit are one, so are man and woman to be one.

The relationship God established between Adam and Eve is the pattern for the covenant relationship of marriage, wherein a man and a woman unite with each other and become one flesh. Looking to God’s love as his model, a man is to love and cherish his bride, and to care for her as he cares for his own body. The woman is to respect her husband and submit to his leadership in the same way she honors God and submits to Him. What a blessing God has bestowed on us through this lifelong male–female relationship of self-sacrificing love. As we faithfully honor our marriage vows, we are no longer slaves to our fickle emotions.
We are truly free to love.

Our essential nature as men and women is more completely expressed as husbands and wives. Mirroring God’s love for His people, the husband steadfastly cares for his wife as his own body and the wife thankfully receives and responds to his love (Ephesians 5:22-32). Because a man needs a helper to attain his full purpose and a woman expresses her nature through helping (Genesis 2:18, 20-22), it is in the marriage relationship that their individual strengths are most fully realized. This cooperative, life-giving union becomes the shelter under which succeeding generations are nurtured and grow, and the source of all other social relationships—parent–child, brother–sister, neighbor–neighbor.
Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Ephesians 5:28 ESV

Forever Young, Linz, Austria — Husband and Wife, Bamian, Afghanistan — Ric and Jill Ergenbright

What a gift it is from God to be able to capture a moment in time on film, to remember a day when we were young and strong. For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25).

What God has joined together, let not man separate. Matthew 19:6

Wedding, Kamakura, Japan — Hindu Wedding, Rajasthan, India — Wedding Knot, Rajasthan, India

The covenantal nature of marriage, ordained by God in the second chapter of Genesis, is the foundation of all wedding ceremonies, regardless of culture or religion. In most, rings are exchanged as symbols of the binding, unbroken reality of this covenant. In Hindu weddings, such as this one in a small village of western India, a knotted cord—or in this case, two shawls—is also used to emphasize the sacred union of the bride and groom. Hence, they have “tied the knot.”