Sealing the Deal

There are certain seasonal rituals in which most American families participate - vacations during the summer, Thanksgiving dinner and holiday shopping during the fall, Christmas and watching the Super Bowl during the winter, and mailing in tax returns during the spring.  Taxes!  I wouldn't look forward to springtime if it weren't for warmer weather, flowers, and the celebration of Jesus' rising from the dead on Easter Sunday.  Paying taxes usually means collecting a folder that bulges with various receipts and tax-related documents, meeting with the accountant, writing a check to the accountant, receiving the prepared tax returns at the last minute, trying to explain to my wife why we pay so much in taxes, and finally mailing the tax returns.  

The final moments before I actually mail the returns tend to be painfully tedious.  I check the prepared forms, sign and date the forms, enter my Social Security number, and ask my wife to sign and date the forms.  I then enter my wife's Social Security number (I have done this so many times that I have memorized her number), pull out the checkbook, fill in the check amounts and double-check for errors (I rarely write such large checks, so it is a big deal), sign the checks, fill in other necessary details on the checks, find the mailing addresses for the returns, make sure that the forms and checks are in the proper envelopes, seal the envelopes, and hand carry the documents to the post office to have them sent by certified mail.  It is a meticulous process, and I insist on performing the task in a fixed order.

I did not always attend to such detail during my younger tax-paying years, and occasionally I would discover that either the check or a certain form was left out of the envelope after it was sealed.  If I caught my error in time, I would try to unseal the envelope as carefully as possible, and in most cases I would succeed in reopening the envelope without totally destroying it.  However, the reopening process would invariably leave small tears and wrinkles in the envelope flap, and it would have to eventually be resealed with additional glue and tape.

Mailing tax forms made me think about sex.

I'm not kidding.  When God established the institution of marriage, it was meant to bring a man and a woman to leave their parents and be joined in an irrevocable bond.  Sexual relations between the newly formed couple would consummate the marriage, so that they are bound as one and not to be separated in the relationship.  Sex is the glue that seals the deal, just as licking the envelope flap and pressing it down seals the envelope.  It is not meant to be undone, and attempts to sever the relationship, no matter how carefully, will cause irreparable tears and scars.

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.  (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

The apostle Paul did not specify in his letter the definition of "sexual immorality", but it is reasonable to say that any sex that is not between a husband and wife may qualify the definition.

May we heed King Solomon's advice:

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

by the gazelles or the does of the field,

that you not stir up or awaken love

until it pleases.  (Song of Solomon 2:7)