Easter, Love & Wedding Vows

Easter, more than anything is about love: a love so enduring that God is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) One way to appreciate the power and influence of love is to watch a couple and their respective families prepare for marriage. Recently, I was involved in two weddings; each offering it’s own unique story of love.

The first wedding was a celebration that could have ended in tragedy. The groom had endured divorcing parents and the death of a beloved grandfather. As a teenager, he ran around with the wrong crowd and was heading nowhere fast. Yet, in the last few years, he changed…. really changed. As he repeated the traditional wedding vows you could see the radiant glow of love on his face and the newly mature eyes of a boy who endured the tough trials leading to manhood.

“Will you have her to be your wife, to live together in a holy marriage? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all other, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live? Will you?” With a smile, he looked at his bride and whispered: “I will!”

You knew the next wedding would be unique when handed the bulletin. Carefully wrapped with a white linen bow enclosing two symbolic wedding rings, the cover included these words: “Our family is a circle of love and strength. With every birth and every union, the circle grows. Every joy shared adds more love. Every obstacle faced together makes the circle stronger.”

For over a year, Katy and Nathan carefully selected music, poems, prayers and Scripture readings. They even wrote their own marriage vows. Fearing a memory loss they gave me a copy during the service for prompting but didn’t need it as each looked tenderly into the eyes of their future mate and declared their undying love to one another before us and before God.

Katy, I pledge to love you from earth to sky from sea to mountain and from sun to storm. I promise to make your joy, my joy: your laughter, my laughter: your dreams, my own. I will listen patiently and try to understand completely what you say while walking hand in hand and side by side throughout life with you. I will try to grow wiser through conflict always knowing that at the end of the day we are eternal. I promise to remember how easily we could have missed each other and marvel at how the hand of fate brought us together. I will remember the harsh lessons I endured to learn the way to your heart and never take for granted the blessings I have found in you. I will love you with laughter, with no secrets and no lies as long as there is breath in my body on earth and forever with my spirit.

Nathan, I’ve always been able to express myself. I’ve been both a writer and an artist. But when it came to telling you how I much you mean to me, it was very hard to put my feelings into words. Here is my attempt: Today, I give my life to the most wonderful person I have ever met. The person who has shown me a love more powerful than anything I have ever felt. My equal, my perfect match and the person I cannot imagine living without. I promise that I will fill your life with happiness and humor, friendship and tenderness, compromise and growth, understanding and trust, respect and balance and most importantly unlimited and unconditional love. 

Maybe this is why the Bible occasionally refers to the church as a bride and Jesus Christ as the loving groom: “For I promised you as a pure bride to one husband, Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2) I can almost picture God’s pledge of love for me on Easter morning: “Larry, I vow to love you from earth to sky from sea to mountain and from sun to storm…” My response? “God, I’ve always been able to express myself but when it comes to telling you how much you mean to me, it is so hard. Today, I give my life to a God who has shown me a love more powerful than anything…”

I have to admit, there is one difference between marriage vows and God’s love expressed at Easter. At least after it’s over, you don’t have to watch fourteen hours of video taped memories.

Do you have an interesting wedding story? Send it to me at LarryDavies@SowingSeedsofFaith.com

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