Magnets, Glue, and Marriage too!

God works in mysterious ways! When he speaks, He can take something insignificant and speak divine wisdom even through every day,mundane things.

I work with magnets at my job to hang up blueprints etc.... I have these small disc magnets, only about an inch in diameter, and one of them broke. I learned something about round magnets then:when a round magnet that used to be one piece gets a broken spot in the middle, the same magnetic energy that used to hold the piece together now opposes each other from the center.

I pretty much always keep a bottle of gorilla glue on me , because stuff is always breaking! Elmer's school glue is ok if you want to make something glittery or do a kindergarten project, but if something is REALLY BROKEN you need something stronger. So I began to try and fix the broken magnet. I almost immediately thought of marriage when the magnet broke....

Our own marriage was broken at one point, many people thought we wouldn't make it (including ourselves at times). Some "well meaning" christians even suggested divorce or separation! They should've followed scripture: Malachi 2:16 says," I hate divorce and marital separation"(amplified ). I believe we are now living in the times that the Bible refers to when it says " the love of most will grow cold". It is very dangerous and deadly to the life of God within you to listen to any sort of worldly advice or psycho-babble (as I call some solutions for personal problems). We need to seek God's heart and God's heart is always for restoration and reconciliation. We tried just about everything out there to try to help our marriage. I was an extremely hot headed and abusive husband and we were both hard headed. I remember something being said to the effect of " til death do us part, so to get rid of me, one of us is leaving in a body bag!"

Back to the illustration of the magnet, you have one piece that is now two and it is OPPOSING ITSELF FROM ITS VERY CENTER! I heard a quote once that said,"You cannot fix a problem on the same level it was created." So obviously, we need power greater than the opposing forces and a bond stronger than they are to hold them together. Matthew 19:4 says,"Haven't you read that at the beginning the creator made them male and female, and that he said,'For this reason a man should leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two are to become one flesh'? Thus, they are no longer two, but one. So then, no one should split apart what God has joined together." The better thing is always that stuff wouldn't break. But we live on Planet Earth. Magnets break and so do marriages. As sure as a magnet can't fix itself, you in your own strength cannot fix your marriage if it has a fracture.

The way to fix a broken magnet that is opposing itself is a wonderful illustration of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I must say at this point, that anything short of God's Word and the power of the Holy Spirit is insufficient. The C-clamp(and my fingers) represent the work of God the Father. The Gorilla Glue represents the Holy Spirit. The water represents the blood of Christ. Gorilla Glue is water-activated and so also is the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. There is no other way to activate His power. I put the glue and the water on both pieces of the broken magnet, and began trying to clamp them. Between them opposing each other, being covered in glue, and getting stuck themselves to other metal objects, it was quite a trick to get them clamped. With some difficulty, I did manage to get them clamped. In the end, the power of the C-clamp is greater than the opposing magnetic strength. Once clamped, the glue is strong enough to keep them together even though the opposition is technically still there. The break was fixed and the magnet was restored to its normal function.

I just want to offer encouragement to anybody who feels like giving up. There's no way that I can shut up about what God has done in our life. I knew during the saving process, that He was going to use us and use our story as an example to others because a lot of people give up for a lot less than what we've been through. He(God) is a Master at restoring broken lives. No matter if its a small fault or if you're completely broken and separated, with God all things are possible. With the power of God the Father (clamping you), the power of the Holy Spirit (bonding you), and the power of Christ (activating the Holy Spirit) there is no break that he can't fix.