pastorrudytlc

For some strange reason that I am not sure that I have an answer to, it seems that more couples are waiting for autumn to be married rather than the hot summer months as was more the practice in the past!  As a matter of fact, today I am uniting Kori and Rick together in holy matrimony and before the year is over- I have another half-dozen weddings that will take place!  I take every wedding that I officiate very seriously, and I make it a practice to meet with each couple for some pre-marital counseling before we even get to the “I Do” big day!  It makes me more than a little concerned when I witness too many couples spending more time preparing for the honeymoon than they do for the union which kicks in full time shortly afterwards!  The wedding lasts a day- but in God’s mind- the marriage is still a forever thing!  I want to do whatever I can to give each man and woman some key tools that will help them build a cathedral of love that no storm or amount of years and wear and tear can destroy!  There may be some damage- but when commitment remains strong and in tact at the foundation- despair doesn’t have to set in and undermine what God has joined together!

Now through the ages, men have been trying to unlock this mystery.  Why do their wives, who accept them just as they are before they get married, begin the quest to change their behavior and life-style once their vows are exchanged?  Finally, the riddle is solved!  A social-scientist has arrived at this simple and logical explanation. When the bride, accompanied by her father, starts to walk slowly down the long aisle, she sees the altar at the end and there waiting for her in all of the glory that the groom can muster- him!  Walking down the aisle, the conditioning process starts where the brain absorbs these three stimuli: aisle, altar, and him.  She becomes mesmerized as she continually reinforces these perceptions:  aisle, altar, him. . . aisle, altar, him. . . aisle, altar, him!  And finally, as she stops beside the groom, the conditioning process is complete.  She looks up at him smiling sweetly and keeps saying to herself. “I’ll alter him.”

I enjoy this joke and I have told it more than once at the ceremonies I have been in charge of, but in all seriousness when two do become one- the question is not, “Which ONE do they become?”  Both the man and the woman must bring the very essence and excellence of who they are to the union and together they contribute heartily to allowing the mighty Hand of the Creator to orchestrate His new tapestry that He is delightfully designing by using the absolute best of both of them!  Neither one gets swallowed up by the other but in unity and not uniformity, God is allowed to manifest His latest masterpiece by showcasing His miracle of how much better these two are as one couple than they could have ever been as a solo act!  Together they are better and the better they are- the more we on the outside will still be able to recognize what God is doing on the inside!  As their distinct and unique strengths are being blended in unison, what is produced is wonderful refreshment that as we drink it in, our thirst of desiring the fruit of what real love tastes like is quenched.  You can keep the world’s “kool-aid”- because it isn’t working!  God takes the whine out of society’s wedding wine and He miraculously recreates the real deal!

 Soon after Paul and Marilyn were married, Paul stopped wearing his wedding band.
“Why don’t you ever wear your ring?” Marilyn asked.  “It cuts off my circulation,” Paul replied.  “I know,” she said. “It’s supposed to.”  God doesn’t do this work with entire families!  He does it with one man and one woman who leave so that they may cleave together and become a new creation!  I have seen too many opinions that really don’t matter messing up way too many marriages these days!  There is only room for two to become one!  And let’s leave the main job of getting that task done to Jesus!  He does the best when it comes to alterations and His work has prevented many an unnecessary altercation! 

Genesis 2:24 reads, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”  Aisle- altar- to come to him so that together the One who takes our ordinary songs and turns them into classic Hymns can create some new  music to last a lifetime!  And what He writes are definitely the best love songs around!  Remember, God is after all is the the very author of  LOVE!