As I entered our church sanctuary early this morning, I took this picture at the back of the aisle. “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
The significance of both these sayings converged in my mind as I thought about how the cross should always be front and center in marriage, just as the cross is in this picture. Beneath the cross is the communion table, which reminds us of the mystical union between Christ and his redeemed bride, the Church.
The aisle reminds me that the wedding ceremony is the first step in a lifelong covenant of companionship between a husband and wife. Ruthie and I were married 30 years ago last month. We were right around the same age as the wonderful couple I married today: Michael Smith and Kierra McClure.
The opening lines of the ceremony, which I read this morning, remind me of just how significant and sacred the institution of marriage is. I’ve copied and pasted this part of the ceremony here for the edification of all believers, particularly husbands and wives.
Marriage is a wonderful and sacred union ordained by God himself, who instituted marriage at the beginning in the Garden of Eden, before sin entered the world. The Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Then God created woman from man's own substance and brought her to the man.
Our Lord Jesus honored marriage by his presence and first recorded miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. And he confirmed it as a divine ordinance and as a union not to be severed when he declared, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit sets forth the sacred and exalted nature of marriage when he compares it to the mystical union between Christ and his redeemed bride, the church, saying, "This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church."
For this reason, marriage is commended by the apostle Paul to be honorable among all men: and therefore is not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God.
I’m so glad that Mike and Kierra recognize the honor and sanctity of marriage, and have made God’s Word the foundation of their relationship, and the gospel the fountain of their union. What about you?
“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1). “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures” (Prov. 24:3-4).