Marriage

Ephesians 5:22-33

Gustav Klimt, 1907-1908, Oil and gold leaf on canvas, 180cm X 180cm, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria

If a man is known by his company,
A mirror of his character and name, 
Then his wife is to a deeper degree 
Of profundity of the man she claims.
Not a mirror but same in unity 
When joined in a single covenant frame 
And happy angels watch the ecstasy.
But precious more: she’s not simply the same.  
She bears her own respectability 
Distinctly crafted to triple God’s fame
As two are one by Word of Trinity 
Bare and full but without shame. 
She’s the hallmark of God’s fidelity.
A helper for the man that she enframes.
Her coming from the rib is not indignity 
Instead she’s the holy heat of his flame.
He's the head, but not for that nobility 
Nor in truth is she some degree of lame 
But rather it's his sensibility 
And esteem of what story she proclaims:
That Jesus came amidst hostility 
In humility, no want of acclaim
To head with grace the precious harmony
Of two souls whom by death he overcame.



              — joey shaw