A Holiday Wedding!

Please forgive the delay between posts! I've been quite busy over the Thanksgiving holiday, including traveling to New Mexico for a family vacation, and to officiate my brother-in-law's wedding, an incredible honor! It was a wonderful time for us, as we don't get nearly enough time with that part of the family. (It did seem a little odd, however, to have everyone watching the Vanderbilt/Tennessee game, and not be the only Vandy fan in the house! Great game - GO 'DORES!!) Which brings me to my musings today.

Weddings have been around almost as long as humans have inhabited the planet.

Boy meets Girl,
Boy hits Girl over the head with club.
Boy drags Girl into cave by hair.
And they lived happily, ever after.
The End.

Except it isn't the end. After all this time, people still get married every day. Why would such an antiquated system still be used in today's modern world?

It comes down to the meaning of TRUE love. Not just a love of attraction, although attraction is not a bad thing in itself. (If attraction is based solely on beauty, however, it's lust, not attraction. Good rule of thumb from Billy Graham - If you look once, it's admiration, If you Keep On looking...) True love changes your focus, changes your priorities, changes you. This is how Paul describes it in 1st Corinthians 13: 4-8

     Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

When two people feel that way for each other, nothing short of marriage will honor their commitment to each other, It is when two people both can say "I want to give you my heart, soul, hopes and dreams" and both can say "I want to take your heart, soul, hopes and dreams, and cherish them as my own" that marriage is justified. It is just such love that represents how much Jesus loves us. He gives himself totally, freely. He asks that we give Him our heart, soul, hopes and dreams, not to become empty slaves, but so that He can protect and nourish us, so that our heart, soul, hopes and dreams can be fulfilled. This is why true love needs marriage in today's world. This is why we, in this world, need Christ's true love.

Faith, Hope, and Love abide; these three, but the greatest of these is Love.

and...

GO 'DORES! (also Go UNM Lobos, but that's another story!)