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Feb 05, 2023 06:00am

Soulmate

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This year is off to a speedy start. Valentine’s Day, or as some call it “Singleness Awareness Day,” is right around the corner. As a woman who was single well into my 20’s, I lived the latter for many years.

Soulmate is a term thrown around a lot these days. According to Google, a “soulmate” is defined as a person ideally suited to another as a close friend or romantic partner. This reminds me of Genesis 2:18 when God makes a helper or helpmate suitable for Adam.

One could propose the words soulmate and helpmate are one in the same,
but I see a distinct difference. Soulmate implies completion. Helpmate implies assistance.

The truth is I met the one that completes me long before that fateful December day when my husband-to-be walked into the local coffee shop.

You may be embarrassed thinking of my now husband reading this blog, but I can assure you he already knows he’s not my soulmate. Before you call Lifeword and plead with them to sign us up for couples counseling please hear me out.

I met the One who completes me long ago. I was shocked to discover He was someone I had known and even talked to others about for most of my life. However, I was not in a committed relationship.

During my early 20’s, my Sunday school teacher taught a Bible study, “Knowing Him,” on the life of Jesus in chronological order. The study shed light on the physical everyday human life Jesus lived. This was something I had never given much thought. As a seasoned church girl, I thought I knew Him. I was wrong.

A line from the study I will never forget reads, “Jesus did not only suffer on the cross for you. He suffered His entire life for you.”
As we went through the study, I was humbled to see the God of the universe leave His heavenly throne to subject Himself to a sinful world, parents, jealous siblings, persecution, being misunderstood, temptation, and loneliness. Suddenly, Isaiah’s description of Jesus as a man of sorrow acquainted with grief finally made sense.

I started to ask myself, for real, for the first time, why would Jesus do this? What would motivate the God of the universe to extend His arm of grace to a people who He already knew would treat Him so poorly?

Of course, the obvious answer is that Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross was necessary for sin’s payment and for our salvation. Even still, He is God after all; couldn’t He and the Father come up with a different way?

Hebrews 2:17-18 highlights that Jesus came not only to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins, but to be made like us in every way so He could become our merciful high priest and help us when we are tempted because He Himself was tempted.

Not only can Jesus understand our needs and temptations, but He can do something about it. Romans 8:34 tells us Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God the Father interceding on our behalf.

Jesus lived his life as a living sacrifice, not only to understand but to be the One who can meet the needs of My soul.

One very hard truth I discovered during this study was Jesus desired to not only be my Savior, but my Lord. Though it is true that His love is and always will be unconditional, it begs I commit my life to and express my complete dependence on Him.

Up to this point in my life, Jesus had been someone I met with once a week for an hour. I may have called on Him occasionally through prayer during the rest of the week, but He was not my Lord. He was not the person I was convinced I needed as “the One” in my life.

It’s important to not forget that Adam was complete before Eve arrived on the scene. He had perfect communion with God who supplied all his needs: mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Adam also had a God-assigned purpose. Since sin was not yet in the picture, Adam’s life was literally perfect as he was daily walking close to God.

Adam was not missing a soulmate, but a helpmate. One to compliment, assist, and walk physically through life with him.

Though Eve was valuable to Adam and had a God-given role of helpmate in Adam’s life she could not perfectly…

-fill Adam when he was empty
-comfort Adam’s spirit on the bad days
-seek Adam’s good with no selfish intentions
-know and fully understand Adam’s heart and mind
-bring Adam lasting joy
– comfort the longings of Adam’s heart
-provide perfect unconditional love
-be completely trustworthy without fail

She could not do this because she could not see the utterances of Adam’s soul. Only God can do that. She was also an imperfect sinner who was destined to fail Adam in her attempt to love him perfectly and completely.

Though at the ripe age of 26, I was joyed to meet my long-awaited godly leader, ministry and life partner, and husband, I am reminded daily that he is not my soulmate. Nor am I his. We both are sinners and because of that fact, we fail one another. I must admit he is good at loving me in many ways. However, there is a part of me, the soul part of me, that has inner groanings that he cannot meet nor sometimes even see.

The only one who could and can do this I met long before meeting my husband. He is the one and only soulmate I or any of us will ever know: Jesus Christ.