“15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise. 19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one. 21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Ga 3:15–29 ESV)

What we “know”, as the gospel soars ahead with a message, is the fruit of a centrality, an occasion happened upon all of a sudden, that our “experience” is Relevant, Central, Revealing, and Inimitably Pertinent. Time has come, or has long since been past, that any and all Questions are filtered through the lens of Game Day boots-on-the-ground nemesis-defying coherence, chutzpah, and wisdom. We are the Answering Ones. We are the Observant Ones. We are the Ones Safeguarding a Sacred Trust, in our hearts, in our souls, in our minds and bodies.

The strange Togetherness of two besties, or of a romantic couple (well, we were always friends before lovers…) also entail learning on the go “who they are”. We do not know except a variety of genders (two) are generally involved, except a variety of personalities are generally involved, more, that we can bask in some kind of Genius from our better halves. Even if we don’t Own and Fully Explain Away all their specialness. Even though that sense of Ultimate Union may wait for a time post-apocalypse, post-Dying, post-this turn of affairs.

That is, the soldier’s consummation of Life upon Life, is a fruit low-hanging because easily on some fronts easily Obtained, yet on others, no blasphemy of the body, no presumption of the mediocre “sacrament” celebrated, no easy-peasy round-about way to get at the matter. We literally cannot Unionize (form Union) until our confidence is installed, until our permission is obtained, until our “Exclusion of all others” is sworn.

And this is a crying shame, isn’t it, for two nominal lovers and best friends to Lack some together Experience that might just Answer the question: who are you, after all these years and decades who are you? So people make haste to do initiation rites and furtive teenage shadowy Promises of an agreed-upon Meeting or coolheaded togetherness, “For now, until we get old”.

Our best men and best ladies, then, are Deeply and Terrifically longed-after and sought-out, oh, it was just the gender thing that bore some explanation, some misguided attempt to unionize around things shared. We can and have unionized, because it is some Holy Mystery why these two are like two peas in a pod, are repping one half as a veritable force of nature and the other half as a veritable belligerent or “Here I stand” loud-talking, gently-backed however, spirit.

Go and do likewise, saith Christ: the artistry of Love, of Attention-Paid, of long-awaited-upon Rewards, meets the Fact of a head-spinning trip down memory lane, that there are indeed souls “out there” who hold us closely not competed against but Inspired, held to a High Standard, Reminiscent of a guild or a strategic Utility of the self.

Thus to the enemy and her or his Life Experience: nevermind one enemy, several, as we… as one-half we see so-and-so video chatting or personally going on a “date”, to learn what-all the boots-on-the-ground, the instruction-giving “other half” is all about (choose this day whom you will serve, and be assured that sometimes two halves are best friends and couldn’t be persuaded to compete, or argue as to a line drawn right down the middle). The “other half”, male, female, both, either, makes that illegal coffee date (infidelity? Of course not! We are literally soldiers hard at work and the appearances of misogyny, misandry, or of polyandry, there simply ain’t time in the day to assuage the onlookers). Yes, you onlooker need only Know: to be known and to know Christ is your license to spread wide your seed and your affection. But for now, we all of us need band together. And ah the cleanliness of a society minus messy generosities taken with the definition of marriage, of family structure, of dating dynamic. It just felt right, that she and I, that he and I, should cuddle in the spirit and no, we weren’t undoing the mystery of the opposite sex, rather we were Amazed and of Fine Esteem to Discover not just Love but Friendship.