Jesus replied,

"Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended."

Matthew 19:8 NLT

What did God originally intend? 

The uniting of people.

Wholeness.

Eve had been made from something, some part taken from Adam, and now there is the picture of reuniting, of wholeness.

That seems to be the idea. 

So when marriages fail, when relationships fall apart, when there's separation between us, it's not what our God's intent was.

And no wonder that it hurts. 

We know that our relationships with one another, whether they're friendships, whanau, marriage, we know that they're not perfect, that we're not always going to get things right, but when they rupture, we know that's not how things were meant to be.

That's not what God intended.

And it's OK to grieve what is lost, what is broken.

Broken relationships should make us sad. 

That's not what God intended.

Our world has so much hurt to carry, we all do, no one seems to be free of the pain of broken relationships, and that means that we're in this together, that as followers of Jesus we do all we can to build, strengthen, hold, & nourish our relationships.

In this mixed up, messed up world, the reality is that sadly, even with our best efforts, relationships don't always last. 

#wordsofJesus

#redletterBible 

#keepingitreal 

#onedayallwillbemadenew