What Marriage Is and Isn't

Marriage isn't an institution. Marriage isn't a legal contract. Marriage isn't a ritual, or a celebration, or anything of the sort.

Marriage is the creative sexual union of man and woman sanctified by God and recognized as valid by the community. Marriage is an act of sub-creation by God's own creations, in the universe God created, elevated to an immortal and divine creation when He blesses the child the parents created with an immortal soul God created.

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From this you can extrapolate almost every error and sin of man with regard to marriage, and every recent secular misunderstanding - why everything that is wrong is wrong - and what we truly need to recognize and protect.

Dreaming About Marriage

I had a dream about marriage where it seemed revealed knowledge to me why sexual intercourse may not be present in heaven, at least not as we think of it.

I was bothered by the idea that something which seems joyful or sanctified shouldn't be present, and perhaps misunderstood some of the Fathers writings that appeared to suggest it wasn't good.

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It was revealed to me that the union between two lovers is so elevated in Heaven, so complete and joyful beyond any possibly earthly imagining, that the sexual act itself but seemed a pale reflection. That which was good and divine about sexual relations were so joyfully fulfilled that there was no question or desire of merely having the earthly state.

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This sort of understanding simply can't be comprehended by those living in a sinful state, because those sinful states specifically are excluded from this joy. They are misdirected abuses of the true understanding of marriage's divine purpose and union. Sinful states are actively separating people from God. They are sad degradations of beauty and truth. A sinner must lose himself, and what he thinks he desires, to turn and embrace true joy and understanding - the joy is beyond imagining and so to the depths of sorrow caused by sin and error are beyond realization.

If a man is so blinded that they can't see the truth, they must simply have faith and hope that something far greater exists. He must love God and trust God that His Father knows what is good, that His Father is good and truth, and let go of the lies and deceptions.

(A child may not understand why a thing is dangerous, and so the parent must simply forbid it, put it out of reach, and even punish the child. The child must obey until they can understand and know.)

Wherein Marriage Partakes of the Divine

God's primary relationship to us is love, and it is a creative love that gave birth to the universe and all of mankind.

The ideal form of marriage is that of great love between man and woman. A love that is above physical attraction, but includes it, that brings two lovers together in union.

This ideal love is so strong that it truly brings about that union, not only in a temporal act, but one which actually partakes of the divine. That is, the union is joyful, bonding, and truly creative - so creative that a child - the actual physical embodiment of that union - may be born. The parents give the child a body and God gives it an immortal soul!

Notably, Jesus Christ's first miracle involved participating in a marriage. The presence of God at the marriage is reflective of His divine presence in marriage itself and the creative marital act. The act of turning water to wine as a divine first miracle is confusing to many, but specifically reflects Him sanctifying and elevating a mortal marriage to that of divine creation.  So to, His miracle reflects the joy present in marriage, the joy of divine creation, and the joy of loving union.

It is really amazing: God sanctifies the parent's love, because marriage specifically means the union of man and woman. He makes that love immortal. He makes that union immortal by uniting their creative act to an immortal soul created by God Himself.