Til Death do us Part.

And of what it really means to say, "I do."

Yesterday, we went to a wedding - my family and I.  We were witnesses to the marriage of a beautiful young woman whom we have known and loved since girlhood to her boy-man prince whom she has waited for - for all these years.

And it was a beautiful day.

I love weddings, because they remind me of my own day thirteen years ago when I wore white and when he cried.   I love them because they put today in perspective when life gets crazy and when the future at times seems uncertain.  I love them because I want my boys to witness and to experience this love - to ask questions and to watch in innocent awe...  And I love weddings because I want to be reminded  - again - of the words of our own forever vows...and of what it really means to say, "I do."

Washing each other's feet.....A beautiful picture of mutual serving.

Yesterday was the brand new start - it was Chapter One - of Katie and Todd's book of Forever...

And all day long, as I looked back and forth between this fresh, new love of this brand new couple, and then all around me at the seasoned, weathered love of the many many witnesses who came to share in their day...the seriousness of the moment, and the depths of their vows that they pledged before all of us rang ever truer...

Because some of those couples - and most of that love - in our audience yesterday have weathered some pretty heavy battles through the years...

~ Some have battled strokes and sickness...
~ Some have had some oh so sick babies....and babies who didn't make it after all...
~ Many have weathered several job changes and countless moves...
~ Some have had personal and very public attacks on character and on the very core of "who" they are...
~ Many have kids who have grown up and walked away from everything that they were taught and modeled at home...
~ Probably countless have experienced seasons of dryness in life and in love...
~ Chapters of heartache - caused maybe by themselves...or by others...
~ Seasons of messy and seasons of mundane.
~ Chapters of babies and toddlers....and chapters of caring for aging parents.
~ And I am sure that all have witnessed headaches and heartaches of which no one else is even aware...

And...maybe none of us fully realized the magnitude of what exactly we were signing up for on the day that we all took our vows.  Maybe we didn't know that cancer might one day join our party...or that babies might never be a part of the picture when that was something that we most desperately wanted.  Maybe we never imagined that infidelity could ever come knocking on our door...but it did....or that depression...or fear...or going bankrupt...or ~ you fill in the blank ~ would ever in a million years come to visit our safe and happy little homes in the chapters and seasons down the roads of our lives...

Heavy, heavy pain that nobody ever volunteered to sign up for on the day when they pledged their forever vows before their friends and their loved ones...

And yet.
And yet.....

They did volunteer.  We all did.

This is all a part of two messy people making a holy forever vow before God and man to join their messes together.
This is the sad reality of living life in a fallen, messed up world ~ and of being fallen, messed up people.

But the crazy beauty of it all, is that even if we make a royal mess of things at some point in our marriages...and even if, at some point, God requires some extensive heart and soul surgery from some or all of us.....and even if there are seasons of drought and chapters of deep, crushing pain...

God is a God of redemption and of second chances.  He is a Specialist in bringing beauty out of the ashes of our lives...and His desire is for our own messy marriages to - in spite of it all - be the earthly picture of our Heavenly Bridegroom and of His marriage to us....His Bride.

And we were reminded again yesterday that this love and this life is indeed:  "In sickness and in health.  For better or for worse.  For richer and for poorer.  And for as long as we both shall live...."

When we signed up for Forever...we all signed up for "whatever crap life throws at us."

We entered into a covenant of "us against the world," of "you and me no matter what," and of "Yes, we know that life, at some point, will probably get messy....it might not always look as crystal clear as it does today...but that's kind of the point of why we celebrate today in the first place."

It will always and forever serve as a signpost - a reminder - of the covenant that we pledged to each other.
And, weddings serve that purpose well in reminding all of us...

And there will be chapters of the good with the bad and the sick with the healthy.  There will be seasons of good right along with the seasons of the really bad.  And if we are lucky to have years of plenty - there will also probably be quite of few that land more on the side of poverty.  Times when one of us will be doing okay, so we might need to breathe for the other for just a while.  And times where the other will know it's time for them to step in and do the breathing...

And that's what forever love is.
That's commitment.
That's what makes the unknown, scary future become an adventure, and that's what makes life worth living.

We weren't intended to walk life alone.
We were never meant to do it by ourselves.

And for Katie and Todd - just like for all of us.....
Junk will come - because that's what life does.
And they'll make mistakes - because that's what people do.
And they'll have to choose to forgive, and to trust, and to move forward without fear.
They'll have to let go, and to move past...
They'll have to be willing to serve.....and to be served....to let go of pride and to eat a lot of crow....
They'll have to be willing to allow God to write the story of their lives...
And be ready to close their eyes and dive in deep.  Together.  No matter what.
Because that is what life is.

So, when the newness of today turns into the lifetime of tomorrows....
When the proverbial "you know what"  hits the proverbial fan of "what was it again that I said yes to?!?"...
Might they be reminded...might they remember....as we all were reminded yesterday....

....of what it really means to say, "I do."

And as we danced in the midst of all of the brides and the grooms ~ the very brand new ones who were wearing white....and the ones who were many years old....him and me, with my impossibly huge purple belly between us....

We were reminded once again of all that we signed up for.
And once again, we said "I do."
Always and Forever.
No matter what.