I was asked to perform the ceremony in two weddings at the end of the year. My very good friends S & J and D & A are getting married so they’ve asked me to be their “parson.”
Since they have asked, I have been pondering what to say, how to make the ceremony original and meaningful to these two couples. I know, I know, that is not a good thing to say, especially before a wedding, but I was amazed to think that there was a great standard that was set. God was the original wedding official, and he performed the best wedding ever. I am pretty sure no one complained about that wedding; the flowers were perfect, the wedding was punctual, and more than anything the message was the most thoughtful and God-centered wedding message ever.
The issue is that working on the messages for these two weddings has given me much to think about my own marriage. Weddings are fun because one gets to be involved in the union of two people who love each other and love the Lord as well. Yet preparing for these weddings have shown me how needy I am of God's grace when it comes to my own marriage.
As husbands we are called to a high standard,Ephesians 5.25-33 says
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Living up to God’s standard in officiating a wedding is one thing, but living up to his love is quite another.
Living up to Christ’s standard as a groom is something that we will never attain, yet the Apostle Paul charges us with Christ’s example.
I have to ask myself, even as I write this, how can I love my wife more sacrificially when Christ gave his life for her?
Am I truly willing to sacrifice for her as Christ did? Especially when I am impatient or short with her.
Christ’s example still rings in my ears.
gap
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