Good Morning All,
I have a couple of weddings to officiate in
the near future. I can’t get over how
the brides and the grooms look younger and younger at each wedding but that is
a different devotion. The thing that
fascinates me the most is how, during the actual wedding ceremony, everyone is
scared to death. When I perform a
wedding, I always tell the bride and groom, “Focus on me, don’t look anywhere
else. All that matters is that you say ‘I do’ or ‘I will’ at the right
place. After that we don’t worry about
it.” Yet at every wedding the nerves are
always there. The tension is just below
the surface.
However, the reception is a different
affair. I always smile when the bridal
party is introduced. In our region, at
the start of the reception, the entire bridal party is introduced as they walk
up to the head table. As they enter,
they dance and wave their hands and really enjoy it. They laugh and everyone
applauds. It is such a contrast to the
way they walked into the church a couple of hours earlier where they were so
solemn and sober. Yet the reception, the
wedding feast, is a grand celebration.
As the entire community celebrates the
marriage of these two people, they also celebrate life and family. Some only come to the reception and then they
celebrate all evening. You watch as
friends and relatives who haven’t seen each other for a number of years get
re-acquainted and laugh at old times and share “what’s new” at the present
time. They gather around in little
circles and laugh and talk the evening away.
Then the circles will disperse, and new circles form and the cycle begins
anew. The merriment, the joy, the
fellowship involved is one of pure celebratory time.
I think this is why heaven is compared to
the wedding feast. Heaven is a time of
celebration. Heaven is a time of
joyfully speaking to each other and remembering the good and sharing the new
and great. Heaven is the time of the most wonderful celebration. We are alive in the heavenly kingdom, and we
celebrate our presence there with Jesus our king and with all of our brothers
and sisters in Christ.
The wonder of this all is that our life in
the church is to be a fore taste of this feast or celebration. Our time here is part of the “not yet” of
Christ’s kingdom. We are in his kingdom
just “not yet” fully glorified. We are
living in his time of grace, and we get to know a little of the heavenly
celebration that is to come. The best is
yet to come!!
Dear Father, as we wait for the wedding
feast of heaven; keep giving us a taste of it through your mercy and love. Lead us to always seek your grace and to
trust in your love for us, that we may know your peace. In
Jesus, name we pray, amen.
God’s
Peace,
Pastor Bret
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