Naked and NOT Ashamed

OK, here's my last post about sex for a while.
(I'm already getting pumped for our Easter series, and out series after that, "I Love $")

The last verse in Genesis 2, the last verse before the fall into sin...

The man and his wife were both naked and felt no shame.

The one place where we are invited back into a relationship like that is in the marriage bed-
it is a place where we can once again find ourselves naked, and not ashamed.

It’s amazing, really, when you think about it. No other creature knows nakedness.
No other creature knows shame.
It is unique to humans.
Its unique to sinful beings.

We are the only image bearers of God, and there's something about that image that we see in our nakedness. And we know, out in public, it’s too much to bear, too much to expose.
(But we sure keep on trying!)

But in the marriage bed, we can begin working our way back.
We can get naked, and not ashamed.
When, as Corinthians 7 tells us, our body is not ours alone,
when we are as much the other and they are as much one self.
When we understand the others needs, and when they understand ours.
It’s a beautiful thing.

Marriage isn't the best thing in this world- a relationship with God is.
Marriage isn't even necessary for a fulfilled life.
But marriage provides us the most unique relationship with another person,
and it uniquely invites us to that place to be naked without shame with another person.

So married folks I commend you getting naked and not ashamed.
It means you are going to have to work at it, talk about it, laugh about it, pray about it and practice at it. But you have the unique blessing of actually coming to that place of connection with another human being where you can get unconditional, unclothed and still unashamed!

That’s what will make sex good for us- to be naked and not ashamed.
To be unashamed of ourselves.
Unashamed of what we’ve done.
Unashamed of what we’ve done with others.
Unashamed of our desires.
Unashamed of our spouses nakedness.
Unashamed our our union with another.
We can experience uniquely in the marriage bed a foretaste of that kind of perfect, pure most deeply connected relationship a man and a woman can experience.

It's pretty awesome.