It was a hot evening, but dry and deliciously comfortable-the kind of evening you just want to wear as little as possible and feel that gentle warm breeze caressing every inch of your skin.
I’d never felt fitter or stronger in my life, and as I bounced effortlessly along on soft pavement, illuminated by an orange-red sun, my wife floated with equal ease next to me.
Was it a run, a jog, a sprint? I didn’t know or care: I felt like I could run around the earth and enjoy every step of it. And when I say “enjoy”, I mean I must have been pumping enough endorphins to raise the Titanic.
I wasn’t prepared for the heightening of my euphoria to another level altogether. As my wife gained ground and drifted in front of me, I was struck full force by the beauty of God’s creative power, in the form of golden flowing hair, lean muscles rippling in the sun, lightly tanned skin gleaming with sweat, and the musical and poetic motion of a divinely designed, living being, pounding out those long, powerful strides, the sun highlighting all the curves I’d fallen in love with time and time again. More than that, this creature was running not just on the pavement to who knows where, but she was running with me, through all the ups and downs of life, on the same roads, and into the same sunset, just as the Creator planned it to be:
“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’…’Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man’…’For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh…’” (Genesis 2:18 and 24).
Thanks for reading.
This post first appeared on my blog a few years ago.
Thanks to Jakob Owens on Unsplash for the image.
Fuel for Faith 