 |
| Stearns Wedding 09/16 |
 |
Shaw Wedding 02/19
|
 |
| Drabiuk Wedding 06/09 |
 |
| Durette Wedding 09/09 |
 |
| Waite Wedding 07/12 |
It's wedding season...oh but wait?! Is it though? Ok, it IS 2021 and there can be weddings in any place-- any season, rain or shine, huh? Since Covid we've even lived through a time where we can attend virtual weddings! I even know by attending a wedding earlier this spring that drive thru weddings can be a lovely thing! They may not be the best that we would have hoped for, but I still did see a good, exciting thing and left with some pretty great chocolates and a candle in the end! 😏
I've been a part of several weddings over the years! It has been my joy to honor these couples either by walking the aisle or singing my heart out on a love song or two! I have breathed in a whole lot of grace and times of sitting with God over my own and other's expectations of MY relationship status! These times have even included a review, repenting and rebuilding of things I've heard preached about and sometimes 'preached' on over the years. Yes, there's been some real prayer going on for years around here--and it's not always just a passive "woe is me--damsel in distress", who waits for "the one" to fall out of the sky kind of prayer😝. It's the kind that evokes anger, grief and pain over how we can make an idol out of weddings, marriage & family. It's the kind of prayer that settles into and normalizes a desire for love and being loved by a spouse and having a family! Sometimes it's the kind of longing in prayer that moves you into taking a risk in order to have honest conversation, join that dating site or maybe just practice living a FULL life with or without someone to share it with! I long for and have seen times when marrieds with families welcome and extend hospitality to those who have no spouse or children! In the same breath I pray and have seen that singles can also welcome and invite into our lives and homes those who are married and have kids! Because maybe this is what living in the Kingdom is all about? Communing---communion together in all of our different and just as equally important seasons of life!? Anyway, it's also the kind of prayer and gratitude that believes that we were created out of and for relationship. The prayer that knows marriage is a good and holy covenant that must be taken seriously through all the cutesy, flirty, and at times awkward sentiment of 'falling in love.' It's also the kind of prayer that weeps in great delight over two people embodying Christ's love for His people in their wedding ceremony and even more so in the days of their marriage---when it takes work, bodies get worn and wrinkled and days are hard! Even to commit to each other when no one is watching or taking photos of you and life feels mundane because falling in love is easy--staying in love is hard or so I've been told!
 |
| Jones Wedding 07/18 |
So take the rest of these words and hold them loosely as a dialogue I imagined between God and me as I sit at a wedding ceremony--and the rest on the topic will probably stay written on my heart in that place of just me and God, but for now enjoy reading the rhythms of His heart that beats for this "always a bridesmaid and sometimes a wedding singer!' And whatever you do---do whatever it is that gives you more of God and reflects His glory in your life, calling and even your relationship status 😍
"Bone touching bone, close as a breath--skin to skin--heart to heart beating in sync! God says to me, "This is the communion I long for with you." It is a union that you've watched be represented in marriages by many. It also is a union that you've seen fall apart and grieved over! There are marriages that have lasted years that ache with loneliness---where the love has grown cold & for multiple reasons and (without shame and with a grieved compassion I continue to write here) have even been walked away from for good. It also is a union that you've seen rebuilt, restored, renewed and fought for because of what is true love---true commitment and a partnership that was initiated and mirrored in the Persons of who I am---the Father, Son & Holy Spirit!
And what if there's not to be ever a ring on your hand and singleness is your life status? What if they've left you or cheated? What if they've died---what if all your dreams of doing life TOGETHER look different than you both had thought? What if truly loving someone means that you let them go and be who they are called to be? Does this mean that you can't experience communion--this unity---this more of Me?
No!!! Wholeness and the measure of your spiritual life is not based on your relationship status! When more of Me comes to you by a bold "dating and looking" statement on an online site---Go for it! (With much discernment and prayer😍) ! When more of Me comes to you in the form of a partner---Get married! When more of Me comes to you in the form of singleness and cultivating hospitality and 'family' outside of being married or even blood relationship to others---here is where you can know the grace to be satisfied and wanting more of Me too!
So bottom line? All of life whether you've been a bridesmaid, a groomsman or a wedding singer a hundred times---whether you have a family or not, the point of it all is becoming---becoming more of Me in you, through you and out of you! This is a love that remains and the 'thing ' you were created for!
*All photos posted with permission*
Comments
Post a Comment