Dan Czaplewski posted on February 16, 2008 09:12
I’ve done a fair number of weddings in the last 18 years of pastoral ministry. I have more than a few stories of things that go wrong at weddings. I have to believe that a few things go right as well.
Tomorrow (February 17), we will be celebrating Christian marriage at Shepherd of the Coast. We asked couples who were married at least 25 years to give us some basic information and we compiled it in a book. Twenty-eight couples responded and they represent 1,263 years of marriage. WOW! What follows is what was on the back cover of that memory book. I pray that you find some encouragement from it.
“Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.” -Martin Luther
Marriage was God’s idea. The amazing thing is that He gave humanity this gift in paradise, before the fall into sin. Even the best of marriages don’t achieve that perfection because sin has warped our thinking on relationships and priorities. But God is gracious and He gives us a fresh start each day.
As we celebrate marriage today, I am struck by how many stories are represented by these couples. There are the stories of how they met, the times of great joy, and the times of unspeakable heart ache. God was there in each story.
God is here in your stories as well. Whether you are single, married, widowed, or divorced, God is in your story. He is in your stories of success or disappointment.
Today, we thank God for the stories of these marriages. We also thank God for His presence in all our stories.