We talked about knowing the person you are in a relationship with. We talked about loving them unselfishly. The third ingredient to a successful relationship is intimacy.
Back in college I had friends who were in the architecture program and I would visit them in their studios from time to time from time to time just to hang out. I remember one visit, though, they were working on a project where their professor told them to illustrate what a certain word meant. Each student had a different word and all of the words had to do with combining things:
Blend, Unite, Marry, Combine, Saturate, Merge, Meld, Infuse, Mix, Join, Bond, etc.
The results were really spectacular and creative. There were all of these multi-media sculptures where two materials were being fused together to make one product.
Is that not the picture of a marriage? When intimacy is mention in the context of marriage we often think of sexual relations. But that’s not the only time when the two become one. Intimacy happens when both partners open themselves completely to each other. Their past, their present, their hopes, their fears, their joys, their weaknesses, all of it. When nothing is held back, the two become one.
Do we try to hold back a part of ourselves from God? “Here God, you can have all of me, except this part here, I’m holding on to that guilty pleasure. And don’t go digging around in this area, I’m ashamed of it. And don’t try to go past those walls over there otherwise I’d feel too vulnerable.”
In order for us to be fully one with God, we have to be fully open to Him.
“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20).
God desires closeness with His people. The only way that can happen is if we give Him our everything.