Tis the season to get married...

Marriage mystery...

Two people stand in front of family and many of their friends.

Before the priest/magistrate/officer of the land/God.

And give themselves to each other.

Forever. (I'm leaving the D-word out of this...)

I don't understand the leap that gets you to that place. It scares, excites and astounds me.

I'm not in that place yet

I enjoy celebrating with friends and delight in the love that they share :)
It's simply that I don't quite 'get it'!

The thing that I've come to realise and understand is that I don't have to.

Because marriage is the place for the expression of two individual's love for one another.

I would be skeptical of anyone claiming to fully understand the complexities of two people's lives being joined together so deeply.

The mysteries which surround marriage as a whole stem from the fact that marriage is an earthly representation of the sacrificial love that exists between Jesus and His people on earth. That He laid down His life for the sake of us. That we as His people would seek to serve Him in love through our lives.

In the same way that husbands are called to give their lives in loving servitude to their wives and wives are called to love and obey their husbands likewise.

It's pretty intense, crazy, cool stuff - as much as I've enjoyed all the weddings this 'wedding season' I'm glad that I have a break for a while! In the meantime here are two of my seasonal highlights...

"Firstly I must congratulate you on getting married..and inform you that statistically you are now sitting next to the person who is most likely to kill you"

- From the mouth of pastors....

"Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love", which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident."

- Captain Corelli's Mandolin