Wedding

Last week on Sunday I was invited to Odanah to the engagement party of my dear friend Rachel to her beloved Lowell. They will be married on Sunday.

I was so tickled and honoured to be there to witness this blessed occasion that my feet haven't touched the floor all week yet. I've actually been wearing blue all week to commemorate and to celebrate their wedding. Usually after a trip I come home with a big hangover, but not so this time, I'm actually refreshed and up-lifted. I also saw many sweet people that I haven't seen for way too long.

Just feeling the thrill of it made me consider that we have all been invited to a very important event in the history of the world. God has called each one of us to attend His wedding to His bride the church. He longs for her as much as any lover does his loved one, and has asked everyone to come. That should make me feel awed too, and inspired to get the invitation out if anything should. I have accepted the invitation and committed myself in baptism to be there. I have been fitted in His righteousness, the wedding dress I plan to wear, because that's the only spotless one I can find. Hence, my daily struggle to be dead to sin, and not let the members of my body be used to serve the devil and his kingdom.

I was also struck again by how much our marriage relationship reflects the relationship of God and his church. I know from my own marriage how Rodney at times has looked at me with pity, mercy and great great love, and that is how God looks at his church and has provided her with salvation. I have had to look to Rodney for help, wisdom, and strength, and yes, even salvation when things have gotten tough, and that is how a church turns to God sincerely in prayer.

I know from having had a few breakdowns how Rodney helped to keep me whole, and saved me from falling to peaces. He never mocked me or shamed or insulted me, he just served me tenderly as if I was the queen of Sheba. Today I can walk with confidence, intact, with my head up because of this great love. He was the example of God's love for us. This kind of love is not just for some of us, it is for all of us. Whenever we feel lonely, rejected, or lost, He is just waiting to bless us, to hold us, and to see to all our needs. He knows what they are far better than we do ourselves. This is a great gift of love that we have been given; not to be taken lightly, it flows from Him through us and ever outward to touch lives and change hearts.


I painted this just before Judas was born in June 02. Rodney and I saw a beautiful sunset between the trees and rushed out in the wind to get a better view. Standing there is it's splendor we talked about how our life will never be the same again and that the beautiful honeymoon years were over. Like the sunset, that day really was the end of something beautiful and the start of a new special day or chapter in our life together. We were about to become parents and much happened in the following years to give us a stronger and more meaningful relationship.