According to The Book of Common Prayer (p.423), marriage “signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and his Church.” In the Hebrew scriptures, likewise, the marriage metaphor was used by the prophets to describe the union of God with the people of God. Union is God’s desire for us, union with God, union with one another throughout the world, union with all creation, all interconnected through the mystery of God’s loving presence. Christ Jesus became incarnate to awaken us to our primal need for at-one-ment with God, to draw us into communion with God so that we might begin to recognize our need to be in communion with all, to show us the way of self-giving love—the only way to lasting union. The gospel tells us that it is “because of [our] hardness of heart” that we run away from union so determinedly. All the barriers we erect between us and others in our day-to-day lives, all the stone walls we build up stone by stone to fortify our positions contribute to our hardness of heart. Rather than being self-giving, we tend to be self-serving, self-protecting, self-seeking, self-justifying, self-deluding, self-pitying, in other words, self-centered instead of God –centered. Focusing all our attention on ourselves, our fears, our needs and desires, hardens our hearts and separates us from one another and from God. Separation, division is not God’s will for us. Union or separation—the choice is always ours. If we want to follow Jesus into the dance of eternal love, we have to be ready to let go of our desire to go our own way, willing to trust God’s redeeming grace to open our eyes to the interdependence of the entire cosmos, and able to welcome the blessed union God has prepared for us, each of us and all of us. Whenever we choose separation, God continues to reach out to us in steadfast mercy and love until we are ready to accept God’s never-failing, life-giving presence into our lives, no matter how long it may take to turn us around, to enable us to know the joy of Oneness.