Here’s to the couples that have been down, but by God’s grace, keep dancing

3 min read

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. -Genesis 2:24; Mark 10:7; Ephesians 5:31

Adam and Eve get a lot of bad press for what happened in the Garden. We can hardly remember anything else about their story, except that they failed. They famously ate the forbidden fruit. Their fall will forever be known as the fall.

All biblical discussion on what went wrong with humanity typically points back to them. And we, as sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, will never let them live it down. Sin, originating in them, has affected us all.

We don’t blame them necessarily, realizing that had it been you or me in the garden, it would have likely been the same outcome. Yet, we do define Adam and Eve in a way that none of us would want to be defined: by a single regrettable choice.

The Dance Continues

Yet, as devastating as their tresspass surely was, there is something redemptive about the second half of Adam and Eve’s story that we should notice, a detail that often gets overlooked. It is simply this: they stayed together.

The original couple honored their vows. God brought them together and together they remained. Somehow they did not allow the furious fallout of past sins to bust them up.

Things got difficult, to say the least. Life outside the garden was not paradise. Blood, sweat, and tears was the new normal. We can imagine they relived and rehashed that dark moment in the garden over and over again. Even worse, they would lose a child to an extreme case of sibling rivalry.

No, Adam and Eve’s dancing would never again be like it was back in the garden. Yet, they kept dancing. Together.

True, it’s not like they had a lot of options. Since it was just the two of them, adultery wasn’t a temptation. But they could have continued to point fingers at one another until they had nothing left, and then gone their separate ways.

But they didn’t.

Their children – Cain, Abel, Seth, and other “sons and daughters” – would be testimonials to their continued oneness. God had said that “the two shall become one,” and on that part they succeeded. They learned from the first scandal that God does mean what He says, that He is supremely good and trustworthy, and that to honor him is to flourish.

So they stayed with it. Hard as it was at times, they remained a couple.

True romance isn’t that you never trip while you’re dancing. True romance is to continue dancing, even after you fall.

It’s a new day with God. Run with it.