Something Borrowed, Something Blue

We attended the wedding of my nephew a week ago last Sunday and the minister said some things that really got me thinking about love, life and relationships. It was a very lovely wedding and traditional in the sense that you heard and saw what you would expect to at any wedding. The bride was radiant and gorgeous and with joyful tears she walked down the aisle. The groom beamed with pride and adoration at her coming.  At long last hands clasped in solidarity.

The minister talked about faith and fellowship, not only towards each other but to God and within their respective families. Reminding us all that when we marry we are forming new boundaries. Boundaries that now include our spouse but that will also inevitably be exclusive to the marriage partnership and rightly so. When we create such deep emotional, physical and spiritual ties with another we are vulnerable to one another and that creates an intimacy that touches every part of our lives, of our very beings. And we are bound to hold that vulnerability and intimacy faithful, to give each other our trust, a trust that should never be broken.

We are asked to seek God's grace and wisdom to guide and sustain us in our relationships with each other and with the newlyweds. To be mindful of those boundaries.

The minister also spoke on Paul's admonition in Ephesians 5:21-22, 25. Which is oftentimes controversial because we have a tendency to misunderstand his words and to take them out of context. I am reminded of what I have heard before that we are to listen to what is being said to us and not to use what is being said to another as a cudgel. Those words are not for us, we need to pay attention to those words that are! Each party must "be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ"! Did you catch that, "subject to one another", the admonition is not mutually exclusive but inclusive to both parties. This connection, this commitment to one another must be inclusive to succeed and echoes the words of Christ who said that no greater love exists than that which moves a friend to lay down his life for another.

Love is a beautiful thing, it is also hard work and can sometimes come at great personal cost but man is it worth it! No greater love have we seen or will we ever see than that of our Lord himself for us. It is humbling and convicting and makes my so called sacrifices pale in comparison.

The bride and groom did not get the sunset on the beach wedding that they had hoped for, but I'm sure they didn't really mind and as they stood under the arbor pledging their love and lives to each other with the sea breeze rustling through the dangling chimes reflecting the light like a thousand stars and clinking like champagne glasses in a toast, we didn't mind either. At least the rain held off until we got inside for the reception.

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother 

and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh".

Genesis 2:24

I'm linked up today.