I like Mud…

I like mud. Always have. Back when I was a kid, I was never happiest as when I was down the road playing in the muddy swamp. In some ways, I never grew up out of this stage. I’m always tracking it home from work and across the living room, into the kitchen, and down into the bedroom. Then I think to take off my boots.
But mud is good. From mud we were created:

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Yeshua (Jesus) liked mud, too. He used it in His healing:

Mark 7:33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;Mark 8:23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.

Mud. Wonderful stuff. So of course I selected a career where there is lots of it. I drive a truck hauling concrete to construction sites. What do construction workers call concrete? You guessed it: mud!
So there I was at a job site slopping a load of mud down on the ground for the expansion of a parking lot for one of those urgent care clinics when a carload of nurses came back from their lunch break (this was evident from the plentitude of drink cups still being slurped from as they exited the car). One of them looked over to where I was working and quipped, “Ooh! A truck driver! I’ve got a thing about truck drivers!”
Always up for some verbal riposte, I answered back with, “Funny. I’ve got a thing about nurses!”
She visibly perked up at this. “Really?” she said.
“Yup. Got one waitin’ for me at home, too!”
“Oh, poo!” she said, whirling about on her heels. “You’re no fun.”
“Au contraire, I’m lots of fun. I’m just not your fun!” And I’m not. I’m happily married to my own nurse and have been for almost twenty years. Now I don’t know whether it is this covenant that Satan wants destroyed, or just my life as a whole (probably both,) but he sends temptresses after me frequently. Some get dealt with in a humorous way—like this one—others get a more abrupt brush off (“Whore of Babylon!”)
Nevertheless, my wife and I are one flesh. God made it so:

Genesis 2:18-24 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Yeshua (Jesus) also spoke of this:

Matthew 19:3-9 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.Mark 10:2-9 And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

It’s not just words. We (my wife and I) truly have become one flesh. Many are the times she’ll be thinking of something she needs from the store and I bring it home without her asking. Other times both of us will say the same thing at the same time. Of course, it’s had it drawbacks. When one of us is sick, somehow we both suffer. And I don’t even want to think about back when she was expecting our son—morning sickness is for the birds!
I know Sha’ul (Paul) talks in his epistles about how for some, marriage should not be an option—that to truly serve the Lord, one should strive to stay single:

1 Corinthians 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

However, even Sha’ul (Paul) continues:

1 Corinthians 8:9 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

So I’m going to continue playing in the mud—with my one flesh. Pass the vacuum, please, would you dearest?Shalom u’vrachah – Peace and the Blessing

Tim

Other verses to meditate on
(Not in any particular order)

Proverbs 2:11-19 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; 15 Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.Proverbs 5:15-22 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

Proverbs 18:22 Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.

Jeremiah 3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

Proverbs 6:29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

Jeremiah 5:7-8 How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses. They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

Malachi 2:14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

1 Peter 3:6-7 Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Genesis 1:26-28 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.