“Everlasting
God, those who were divided You brought into
oneness, setting for them an unbreakable
bond of love; You blessed Isaac and Rebecca
and made them heirs to Your promise.
Bless these Your servants, guiding them into
every good work.”
About
a month ago I had the rare pleasure of going
to a movie with my wife and two other
friends of ours. I’ll just come out
and say it- the movie was “New Moon”
(the sequel to the ultra-popular
“Twilight” movie and book series, in
case you’ve been living under a rock the
last year). There, I said it.
Even though I can also say that it was
definitely not tailored towards my target
audience, I am still amazed at how popular
this movie is with female fans of all ages
(not just high school, as it turns out), and
how this series is capturing American
teenagers imaginations. The biggest
reaction from these teenagers, though, was
at the end of the movie (****stop reading
here if you don’t want to know what
happens****) when Edward says to Bella,
“Marry me, Bella.” Like any
successful teenage romance movie, love is
the central theme of the movie, and much to
the delight of everyone in the theatre, the
perfect “happy ending” of many movies is
mentioned at the end of this movie-
marriage.
People love weddings. We love seeing
two friends or family members tie the knot.
We love seeing two characters that we’re
attached to in a book, movie, TV show, song,
etc, get married when they fall in love with
each other. In every culture, in every
country, in every time period, few events
are more joyful than a wedding. The
same held true for Jesus’ time, when His
first miracle was turning the water into
wine at the wedding of Cana, (John 2) which
once again affirmed the holiness of marriage
in God’s eyes. The same is true in
our time and in our faith today. It is
a celebration of life and love.
Marriage, in its purest form, is two people
committing their lives to one another,
before God, and allowing God to sanctify
them and guide them through life- joy,
sorrow and everything in between- to the
Kingdom of God.
The
sacrament of marriage is where love between
two people finds its richest fulfillment in
this life. I’ve shared some thoughts
these last few months about love, dating,
and physical relationships, and the
underlying theme I hope I’ve conveyed is
that in all of these, God needs to be the
central focus. In Jesus Christ, Who is
God, and Who is love, our love for another
person is strengthened and made full.
Even though we don’t hear this message too
often these days, I would urge all of us who
are not yet married to focus ourselves on
this beautiful sacrament. Allow God to
guide you in His love to the right person He
knows is best for you, even if it is a few
years down the road. By doing so, you
won’t have to worry about feeling loved or
feeling valued, because you will know you
are. If we allow God to guide us to
that right person, and center our
relationship around Him, we will have that
“unbreakable bond of love” in our life
with our spouse.
During
that time, you’ll probably have to go to a
movie you don’t want to see at some point,
too, but hey, no one said it was going to be
easy.
