Infinite Depths: What Sex Teaches Us About the Human Person
/CARISSA PLUTA
Magazines, books, movies, and other forms of media pressure young couples to “test drive” their sexual compatibility long before they start looking for a ring.
PHOTOGRAPHY: ABBY CONSOLI
Our culture has taught us to think of sex as something that should be effortless from the start.
However, if you’re married, I’d be willing to bet your wedding night did not go as smoothly as Hollywood led you to believe (I know mine was filled with a few hiccups and a lot of laughs).
Newly wed couples need time and patience to learn how their bodies respond to one another, but those initial challenges can leave newly married couples questioning if (and when) they will have it “all figured out.”
However, sex is not a puzzle to figure out, or a game that you can win. It is something constantly growing and evolving as a husband and wife grow as a couple.
It takes a lot of communication and intentionality, not just at the beginning of a marriage but throughout it.
You will go through seasons where it seems like coming together as husband and wife is effortless, but there will be other times where you will need to reevaluate what is working and what isn’t.
As your bodies change over time, your needs and desires will change too. For instance, the marital union will most likely look different before having children, than it does during the pregnancy and postpartum seasons.
In the same way that our bodies, especially their participation in the marital act, can reveal deep truths about the nature of Love Himself, this aspect of sexual unity reveals the vastness of our God and the depth of His creations.
We can never get bored in heaven because we worship an infinite God. As much as we can learn and know about God through the scriptures and writings of theologians and saints, there will always be more to learn, more to contemplate.
We will spend eternity uncovering the intricacies and mystery of our Heavenly Lover.
And our Earthly Lover reflects his Creator in this way.
Humans are beautifully complex creatures, and it takes time to even begin scratching the surface of who they are and what they contain.
We will spend our marriage, unearthing the depths of our spouse, learning how to enter more fully into union with him.
We will learn how to make ourselves a more complete gift and how to more fully receive the other.
We will see the infinite ways that our marriage bed can make incarnate a heavenly reality.
