This picture is almost 37-years-old. Two pretty good lookin’ kids. Very much in love. Clueless. Inexperienced. Naive. But very much in love.
The Bible addresses the purpose of marriage at the end of Ephesians 5. We should love our spouses the same way Jesus loves his Church, we should imitate the humility of that love and the sacrifice and service of that love in our marriages. But we should also practice the goal of that love, the whole point of the mutual sacrifice and service. Why did Jesus love us and give himself up for us?
“…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.” ~ Ephesians 5:25-27
Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us in order to change us! To cleanse us! To remove all our stains and flaws and sins and blemishes in order to make us holy and glorious and blameless!
Everything that God is doing in our lives through Christ and the Holy Spirit is geared toward changing us. Transformation. Sanctification. That’s our salvation, that’s the goal. That’s the purpose of Jesus’ marriage to his bride, the Church. And the Bible says that’s the purpose of your marriage to your spouse: to commit to each other, to serve and sacrifice for each other, to help each other become more and more like Jesus.
I was honored Friday night to officiate the wedding of Jimmy and Logan, a great young couple in our church at GCR. They got married in the beautiful Cypress Creek Church in Wimberley, where Logan was baptized. When I do weddings today, I look at the bride and groom standing in front of me–all dressed up, so young, so beautiful, so put together–and I’m tempted to say, “Man, y’all look great, but it’s all downhill from here. You’ll never ever look as good as you do right now.”
But that’s not true. Not if you and your spouse are both committed to the transforming work God is doing with both of you in your marriage. If you can see your husband the way God sees him, if you can see in your wife what God sees in her, and if you can both work by his grace toward that goal together, you will become more beautiful day by day with an ever-increasing glory that comes from the Lord.
Carrie-Anne and I took this picture Friday at Jimmy and Logan’s wedding. We’re a little wrinkled. We’re both gray. Our skin is not as tight. We’re not quite as sleek as we were 37 years ago. The world looks at us, both in our late 50s, and sees us declining. The world says we are becoming less and less every day in several important ways. But that’s not true. Carrie-Anne and I are trying to see each other becoming more and more beautiful in Christ. We’re trying to cleanse each other and wash and clothe each other, we’re trying to see what God sees, we’re trying to join him in his transforming work.
Someday, we’ll see it clearly, this glory that will be revealed in us.
What we should say on our wedding day is, “As great as you look today, someday we’re going to stand together in the presence of God and you’re going to be so eternally perfect. And I promise to work with God for you as he makes that happen.”
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Carrie-Anne headed straight for Tulsa super early Saturday morning to get some time with the boys. She took them a couple of Texas flag sippy cups that we bought on the square in Wimberley, and they took to them pretty fast. You can’t be too diligent when your grandsons live in Oklahoma.
Peace,
Allan
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