Why I love weddings.... continued...

Over the history of the church, marriage has been used as an image to speak about how God loves his people, the church. The prophets often speak of God as a bridegroom still loving his bride, even though she may be unfaithful. The Song of Songs is a love poem, often used to speak of God's passionate love for his people. Medieval religious folks often used the image of a marriage to help us see the depth of God's love and faithfulness for us. Sometimes, we get cynical and skeptical about love and marriage. We see a relationship that we had once respected come to an end. We hear about a spouse who broke their marriage vows in an obvious, hurtful way. We can become hard-hearted about marriage. But then, there are those marriages that show us a depth of love that is astounding. A couple who has been married for 60 years, still loving each other, still companions for each other. Or we see a husband and wife face daunting tragedies together, still by one another's side through it all. God's love for us is like that. Some speak of marriage as a reflection of God's love story. When we are at a wedding and we see the bride and the groom standing there, all nervous and excited and hopeful and tremendously in love, our skepticism and cynacism fall away. And we for a moment can see the brilliance of God's love shining in the bride and the groom on that day, in that moment. Each bride and groom is a gift to us. Each new marriage reminds us how much God loves us, too.