A Long Awaited Union

Preparations

Today is a joyful day. Alice you look beautiful. Tristan...You clean up okay. There are beautiful decorations, lovely music, the people you love most in the world are here in this room. So much planning and preparation has been made for this very moment. And of course, you two, more than anyone, have been waiting and preparing eagerly for today. Because today signifies something of permanence. Everything you’ve done to prepare for this day, marks a special occasion for when you will be united for the rest of your lives as one flesh. And as permanent as that sounds, today signifies something of even greater permanence. Today, as you make vows to one another, to give your whole selves completely to each other and to be faithful all the days of your life; you tell the story of the faithfulness of your God and the preparations that he is making to unite you to Himself. Our God loves to tell his story of rescue through the picture of marriage.

In the second chapter of the book of Hosea, God speaks of a day where he will be a husband and unite himself to his people. Beginning in verse 18 we read, “And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.”

Tristan, Alice… God has planned to show through your union with each other the work of salvation that He has done through Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians that the union between husband and wife is a picture that God has given us of Christ to his church. Because we know this, you have the privilege to be a living picture of the gospel message to one another and to the world around you every day. Hear the promises again from Hosea that God makes to his bride: he promises safety, righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness. As you create a home of safety together, you testify to the work of rest and peace that believers have in Jesus. As you pursue uprightness with your words and your actions to one another, you display God’s concern for justice. As you forgive and choose to lay down your own desires for the sake of the other, you show Christ’s servant heart for the sinner. And as you maintain faithfulness to each other all your days, you testify that God is true to His word and that He can be trusted to rescue His bride.

I know all of the preparing you’ve done for today have made it seem like a long time coming...but your preparations have just begun. Now you two get to enter into a lifelong preparation for the day that Jesus will return to completely ransom and unite Himself to His bride. And boy will that seem like a long time coming...