As you know, Barb and I are looking forward to our son Jonathan’s wedding in just a couple of weeks.
We had thought a boy-wedding would be a piece of cake compared to a girl-wedding. Wrong. It’s different, but it’s still a BIG DEAL!
All this has led me to reflect again on the considerable amount of resources marshaled to make a wedding happen. And I don’t just mean money. Take time, for example. Consider how much time is often invested in each of the following aspects of a typical wedding:
- Choose wedding party
- Compile guest list
- Find the “perfect” dress
- Choose the “right” venue
- Design the “ideal” cake
- Select: wedding colors, attendants’ outfits
- Decide on caterer
- Choose floral & other decor
- Select photographer, videographer
- Select officiant, musicians
- Send invitations
- Plan ceremony
- Plan reception
- location
- menu
- decor
- program
- Plan rehearsal dinner:
- location
- guests invited
- decor
- menu
- program
- Arrange guest lodging
- (You know we’ve only scratched the surface!)
And it’s not just the bride and her mother expending all this time! What if you were to add up all the hours invested by the circle of friends and family? And the paid help. And the guests. It’s staggering, really, how much time we routinely invest in celebrating the marriage of a man to his bride.
It seems to be a sociological thing for all humans, not just Americans. All across the globe weddings are the high-water mark of a culture’s celebrations. History tells us it’s been like this from the earliest of days. The biblical account indicates wedding feasts often lasted for days!
I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps God has hard-wired us not only to come together in marriage, but also to celebrate marriage in second-to-none fashion.
With all this as back-drop, do you think it mere coincidence that God’s end-of-ages-wrap-up is called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb? That His elect, whom He has “betrothed to Himself” are collectively called the Bride of Christ? That the dowry of this marriage is the gift of the Holy Spirit?
I am slowly realizing that this no-holds-barred celebration of marriage was put in us by God, and that it is witness to His dogged determination to be with His followers in a loving, living, inseparable relationship for all eternity. To that end, no amount of planning for this event is overdone. No expenditure of resources will be considered outlandish. After all, it’s a wedding!
If this be so, “what sort of people ought [we] to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God?”
Blessings,
