I went to Indianapolis this past weekend for the wedding of my cousin Deborah to a great guy named Jarrod. It was an awesome celebration of love for the family to be apart of. Congrats again to my wonderful cousins. I pray continuous blessings over you guys! It got me thinking about what we are really celebrating at weddings? For the cynics, maybe they are there to celebrate another person choosing to live in the same misery they are, thus growing the membership to "Club Bad Roomate Marriage". For the hopeless romantic, maybe the reminder that others are still believing in the the beginning of the pursuit of blissful love. Then there's the people that no one knows that want to grind on the dance floor all night until you literally turn the lights off on them. No matter what angle you work from... you're still there to celebrate. In our more modern times, I think we're celebrating a miracle. I think it's a powerful miracle that two people would want to share in front of all these witnesses that their love is worth giving up the rest of their life for. That the companionship with that person is more valuable than anything that could ever be represented by automatic deposit, going platinum, 32 seconds of fame on Youtube or any other relationship in their lives. Marriage is the beginning to something extremely exclusive and everything else in your life flows through the filter of that priority. This is a miracle considering the "me first" mentality that permeates our current times. Marriage is a big deal.
The commitment of the marriage relationship creates the safety needed to experience the deepest of realms with a person that you otherwise never would. Not that those realms can't be experienced outside of marriage, there just isn't the safety of lifelong commitment to protect it. This is another topic, but I wonder why so many people are broken in relationship these day? They want the benefits of intimacy on all levels, but not the commitment to cover it. These powerful commitments yield the need for great leadership, focus and selflessness... but nonetheless, it's the decision that TWO people make. The influence they have with one another is like none other (at least it should be). There's no one else who has the right to speak into our life like our mate does. They earned that right on the wedding day and the trust to support that right is birthed through life experience. This is a dynamic facet to healthy marriage.
So we could say that marriage is a miracle of trust that creates the chance to experience healthy intimate companionship like none other. I love that thought... but even greater I love the opportunity to experience relationship that has no limits or bounds because of where it's authored from. This leads me to my faith and relationship with God. One of the pictures used to explain the relationship between mankind and the creator is that mankind is a bride and the groom (Christ) is coming to unite with us here on the earth through His return. While being a husband doesn't qualify me to comment that I know what it's like to be a bride, I can comment on how my bride (Melissa Rae, I love you.) interacts with me. I believe we culturally have a hard time putting physical attributes to God and our interactions with Him, but the thing we easily forget is that God made us like Him. We're made in His image and likeness. We are who we are because God made us from what He knew of Himself. That said, I have one final thought.
What does it look like for mankind to interact with Christ as a bride does her groom? I think about how much influence my bride has on my life. It didn't just happen. It was a growing thing, but the moment we were engaged, we catapulted into the trust gauntlet, learning how to navigate with one another selflessly. (we made a lot of mistakes, but our commitment through it has yielded a dynamic relationship) Remember the old adage "a happy wife is a happy life"? This statement is an old adage because it's inherently true to most marriages. I wonder what level of influence we have on God to motivate Him on our behalf? I wonder what level of companionship and deep levels of intimacy are available to all of us that we've never encountered only because we didn't know it was possible? What if God's greatest desire is to have a companion that will say I Do for the rest of their life? What if a happy wife is a happy life for God too? What if we have the right thru covenant to the biggest influence in God's interactions with mankind? What if He longs to bring us happiness and He gets great fulfillment out of our success and joy? This what it is for me to my wife so why not God to His bride? What if our interaction with the almighty God was everything that we've dreamed about since we were "little girls" and just didn't know it would be God that would fulfill it? What do you dream about? What if God is the beginning to the life you always desired to have? I believe He wants a companion and He's on one knee, asking. What are we going to say?
