UNION

He sleeps, and wakes to a world never known.
The old has gone, the new has come.
Independence, Self, surrendered for something better.

Life is in the blood, and blood is spilled.
A wounded side opened, from flesh, a bride.
Loss before gift. Cost before glory.
Union born of yielding.

Rise. Awake.
At last. At last!

She is mine, and she is Yours.
Lover. Sister. Helper.
My Bride.

Authority and power, not the right to exploit the weaker,
but responsibility for the good of another.
She lowers herself, but I will bend further still
beneath the weight of love.

She is flesh of my flesh, from man;
through man, from Creator.
In her is humanity. She is humanity.
She is mine, and I am hers.

Two, earthly and eternal, as one flesh,
together bearing the weight and wonder
of all humanity was made to be.