What I Learned at a Wedding

I attended a beautiful wedding this weekend. I was especially excited about this one because I got to do the make up for the bride (which is super nerve-racking by the way) and for a few of the bridesmaids. It was so fun to be in that atmosphere and celebrate the last moments of the bride's single life with her. Plus, it was the first wedding that a majority of my friends were attending so that made it all the more perfect. The lighting, the flowers, the dresses; they all combined to create an elegant and romantic ambiance in the room. You could feel the love between the bride and groom oozing out onto the friends and family that were there. They were perfect. It all was perfect. But yet, none of this was my favorite part of the day. In fact, it was not the room, or the love, or the sheer fact that I love weddings more than chocolate-caramel ice cream - which I am border-line obsessed with. The best part was seeing Christ as the center of the whole ceremony. They did something that I have never seen done. Right smack dab in the middle of the ceremony, about the time when vows are to be said, they stopped to worship God. We sang three worship songs that day. It was absolutely beautiful to see where their hearts were on their biggest day as a couple. They love each other, but they're love for each other is and always will be completely centered around God. One of the verses in particular struck a cord with me that day. 

"Oh, I'm running to your arms....I'm running to your arms....the riches of your love....will always be enough....nothing compares to your embrace.....light of the world....Forever Reign."

Truth is, this is our love song to God. Oh God, I'm running to YOUR arms, the riches of YOUR love is more than enough, NOTHING compares to YOUR embrace. How blessed we are that God created man and woman to be together so that we have someone to run to; to embrace. But guys, nothing compares to running to God. We put so much emphasis on finding our perfect match because we want to feel loved, like we belong to someone. We want to feel his arm around us and to feel comfort in his touch. We want to run to him to help us, guide us, lead us through this crazy life. But if he's the only one we're running to...we will never truly be satisfied. We won't have that security and peace that only comes from God. We will be restless wanderers, trying to fill that void in our hearts, the rest of our lives. 

"but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life." - John 4:14

Marriage is such a beautiful, complex, God-given gift. But we can't forget what it's all about. It's not just you and your husband. It's you and your husband becoming one in Christ. It was God's design to serve as an example of Christ and his love for the church. Marriage isn't about ourselves, it's about God and what we can do as a couple for his kingdom. Our marriages are to imitate Christ and the kind of person he was on Earth. Sacrificial. Loving. Serving. Genuine. Generous. We cannot lose sight of this truth.

"The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." - Genesis 2:18-24

"Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." - Ephesians 5:22-23


This wedding put my heart in check. I'm going to love being married someday and having the love of my life standing by me until the end. It's going to be great standing up at that alter, speaking my vows to the one my I love, honor and respect the most. But our earthly love is nothing compared to God's love. Nothing, not even the most perfect husband in the world, should come before our first, true love - God.

I'm running to His arms, I'm running to His arms. The riches of His love will always be enough....