Leaving and Cleaving

It was the sixth day of history. God had just created Adam out of the dust of the ground. He had just brought to him the animals to be named, impressing upon him his need for a wife. He had just put Adam to sleep and from a rib made Eve. He had just brought the two of them together in the first marriage ceremony. Now God gives important, timeless instruction for marriage: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Gen....