A Reminder for Us All
Just hours ago, we watched… No, wait. Let me begin again. Just hours ago, we bore witness. We sat in our finery, with moist eyes aglow and became witnesses to a covenant. How many of the earth's 8 billion can say they've witnessed a covenant between man and God?
When our five-year-old daughter was asked to be flower girl in her twenty-one-year-old brother's wedding, her five-year-old brother with special needs looked at me wide-eyed, lip on the verge of a quiver. His eyes pleaded the question—"Mama, what is MY role in the wedding?" With that look begging for there to be an answer, I told him how his big brother had asked him to be the most important thing at a wedding. He was to be a wedding guest.
"Jesus was a wedding guest," I said, reminding him of the story he knows. "You and I—we get to do the same thing. A wedding guest bears witness. We'll sit, and listen, and later we get to say, 'Oh! I remember!' full of joy over the vows the bride and groom make. We get to remind ourselves that marriage is a little picture of heaven! Your big brother, Aiden, will take Julia to be his bride forever. Just as he will work and sacrifice on her behalf, and she on his, Jesus has claimed the church as his forever through his sacrifice on the cross. Marriage allows us to say, 'Oh, I remember!' to how Jesus keeps us as his own."
I am thrilled to report that there were wiggles, but no melt-downs, as our youngest son watched in rapt attention to the example his towering brother gave, standing there beneath centuries old stained glass. "I am a wedding guest!" he excitedly whispered to us this morning. When the ceremony was complete, and his new sister-in-law floated in a sparkle of white down the aisle on her husband's arm, our youngest son turned and inquired, "Now, is it the wedding feast?"
So too, we rejoice that we are covenantally held by Christ as his—there is a place for everyone in this Covenant—and we look forward with great anticipation to the marriage supper of the Lamb where we'll be saying, "Oh! I remember!" to the goodness of belonging to him, forever.