I Grow Up A Little Each Time

Weddings make me grow up a little each time.

It's like getting married all over again. That's what it's like to me every time I attend a wedding ceremony.

Oh, yeah. Soldado was missing in action again in his blog. Well, the wife shanghai'ed yours truly to get involved in this wedding (yes, the one pictured above) because the bride is one of her better friends.

It's all worth it, at least at my end, I promise you. You see, to me, weddings are like the Bible in a sense. You could read a passage or the entire Book itself a thousand times all your life and each time you could find fresh meaning in its contents.

I remember weddings where I found myself loving my wife even more because I am reminded that in OUR own wedding she has made a vow with me before God to remain one with me through sickness and health, richer or poorer, good or bad, comfort or lack, till death do us part. Seeing how faithfully she has remained by my side--and I am not the easiest person to get along with--makes me appreciate her so much more. It also makes me even more grateful to the LORD, realizing each time that He never makes mistakes and that my wife is precisely the lifelong partner he has planned for me from the beginning of time.

In this particular wedding we went to yesterday, the LORD spoke to my heart as the bride entered the sanctuary. Every one rose from their seat and broke in applause in her honor. The entire entourage including the groom has preceded her and no one else except the bride was accorded this much respect.

I realized what risk it is she is taking for the sake of love to leave the home of her childhood and the security of her parents' and family's protection to join a man she has necessarily known only fairly recently compared to the rest of her loved ones. I realize the perils she braves because the future is simply unknowable. Outside of what she and the groom know about each other, there will be hidden portions that become known only in time and in sharing life together. Nothing about the future is viewable to both of them.

Bearing a child for the husband-to-be is an assumed and often happily regarded expectation that the bride carries with her as she walks down the wedding aisle. Yet, all know that she lays her life on the line each time she lends herself true to this expectation.

I realized how important woman is to man. Indeed, as the officiating pastor pointed out, woman was not created from a man's head to dominate him nor from underneath man's foot to be crushed by him. She was created from his rib, to be by his side, his partner and equal in every respect. She was created from a part underneath his arm to enjoy his protection. And since she is a part that was taken from man, he is never complete until she is joined with him.

How beautiful! Like I promised, all worthwhile.

I can't wait to be invited to another wedding.

God bless you.