However, we must now have as our primary commitment the new family. God is there to help us do that. God provides us with an aura of forgiving love that makes daily commitments a real possibility. To attempt to have a family without forgiving love is impossible. We have been blinded by the secular understanding of marriage as a matter of legality and convenience.
Marriage is so much more than that.
It is a GIFT of God, a gift that requires both leaving and cleaving that it might be what it is meant to be. The mistake of placing money on our highest pedestal and turning it into a god has plagued many folks in the history of humankind and led to a great deal of injustice and violence. The people of Israel in the time of Amos were no exception. Amos deals with them in the royal sanctuary at Bethel. This, however, was no easy thing for them since to turn to Yahweh meant giving up their money as their god.