The third strand
Last Sunday I had the privilege and honour of officiating the marriage of my brother and his beautiful bride. It was an amazing weekend full of family shenanigans, laughter and tender tears.
I must admit when I was asked to officiate the wedding my immediate response was to say, “absolutely”, but as time went on I wondered if it was wise. I asked a colleague what he thought and he told me that there are mixed opinions about officiating the wedding ceremony for family members.
He then said with a smirk, “Sure you can do a family wedding but you’re missing out.”
I asked him what he meant by “missing out” and he went on to tell me about the couple he recently married.
He said, “You won’t believe this but at the wedding rehearsal the groom quietly offered me a $100 if I would change the wedding vows. He wanted me to remove the promise to 'love, honour and obey' and 'be faithful to her forever.’ He actually put a $100 bill in my pocket!”
“What did you do?”, I asked.
“On the day of the wedding, when it came time for the groom's vows, I looked him straight in the eye and said: ‘Will you promise to obey her every command and grant her every wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life, and swear eternally before God and your lovely wife that you will not ever even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?’”
“What? Are you kidding? What happened?”, I asked.
“Well, the dear boy looked around, and said in a tiny voice, ‘Yes,’ then leaned toward me and hissed: ‘I thought we had a deal.’”
“I put the $100 bill into his hand and whispered: ‘She made me a better offer.’”
I don’t know if it was because we were family but nothing like that happened at this wedding!
Last Sunday we were blessed to have Nancy, our extraordinary Family Ministry Director, share the importance of being intentional in our relationships with our children and in our relationship with God. She reminded us the importance of modelling our faith to our children and she challenged us to live by faith.
It was an important message and as I listened to the message upon my return from the wedding I was struck by how this message goes beyond the parent-child relationship! The reminder to be intentional in our relationships, modelling our faith and living by faith is as true for parents of children as it is for husbands and wives, and brother’s and sisters.
It reminded me of a wonderful verse from Ecclesiastes 4:12:
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
The third strand – God.
In all our relationships we need to include God.
Join us this Sunday! And as always....BRING A FRIEND!