Once you have watched that clip, it simply stays with you forever … and changes every wedding ceremony thereafter.
When God first instituted marriage in Genesis, between Adam and Eve, there was no ceremony, no reception, and no government participation (there was no government).
“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 then 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.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.”
Genesis 2:20-25
Marriage is a covenant, and the Hebrew word for it, berith, means a coming together. It is a vow between a man, a woman and God. It is a covenant that God values so much, that He uses marriage to explain His love and promise to His people, how he sees the church, and His promises to each of us as believers. It is the oldest institution in history.
The following video is from the wedding reception of Jefferson and Alyssa Bethke. Jefferson may look familiar to you because he is a popular spoken word poet with many videos on YouTube. Feel free to watch it all, but it is at 2:00 that Jefferson describes who invented marriage (God), and who it is about (not us). He also describes the biggest wedding yet to come.
If there was ever a time when the reality that we live in a sin filled world has been so obvious, it is the tragic deaths in that elementary school in Connecticut last Friday.
It would be impossible for anyone to have heard the news of the horrific events inflicted on the most innocent and pure in our society (children) and not felt the weight of tragedy and loss.
This violent act has some asking the question “where was God?”
…sigh …
I heard a commentary on the weekend expressing a response to that question. The response dealt with how we have kicked prayer and God from our schools, how we have devalued human life and the institution of marriage by redefinition, how we have ignored the teachings of the Bible and thrown out God’s laws from our society.
I disagree! Not with what we have done to eliminate Judeo-Christian values from society, but with the insinuation that the sinful human actions at Sandy Hook Elementary school were allowed as some vindictive act of Creator God.
My God is not vindictive!
Genesis makes it clear that God created our world, from the birds of the air to the fish of the deep to our own humanity. He did so in such a way that the Earth and all within it would be self sustaining. It was perfect!
But, He is not a God who forces himself on us, like a delusional attacker. No, He gave His most high level creatures (aka. humans), choice in obedience … and they (and we) failed we fell for Satan’s schemes:
“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” 1 John 5:19-20
From that moment on God’s ‘pièce de résistance’ (the human race) has been failing, and failing miserably. We live with the very real consequences of being creatures who are born with a sinful nature, since Adam and Eve made the choice to sin in the Garden of Eden. Each and every part of the entirety of creation was affected, and continues to be affected by sin. Our perfect, spotless, free and easy existence has been blood, sweat and tears ever since.
We still live as the image bearers of our Creator, but we are tarnished, bruised and fragile because of it.
Because of sin:
we experience death.
we experience health problems.
we feel hurt and pain and loss.
crops are lost.
people starve.
wars are fought.
people obsess about the world’s demise.
Because of sin … our sin.
There is no band-aid for the hurts that our sinful world inflict on us, or those around us. Our world is not Eden, humanity has not been there since the time of first man and first woman … that is reserved for heaven. God is not a superhero, with a cape, and a script. But, just as thousands of years ago people wished for and anticipated the coming of the Savior, whose birth we reenact in this season with young children … like the ones who died so tragically last week, we need to remember that we are not home yet. That home is the home of eternal joy, eternal peace, and eternal safety.
So close your eyes with me And hear the Father saying, ” Welcome home” Let us find the strength in all His promises to carry on He said, “I’ll go prepare a place for you” So let us not forget We are not home yet, Keep on looking ahead, let your heart not forget We are not home yet, I know there’ll be a moment, I know there’ll be a place Where we will see our Savior and fall in His embrace So let us not grow weary or too content to stay ‘Cause we are not home yet
The BEST wedding clip of all time:
itsawonderfilledlife 