Leave the shotgun at home. It’s their day.

I went to a wedding on Saturday. That’s not unusual. The majority of Australian’s still want to or desire to get married at some point. But it was a different wedding. Weddings today are more about achievement than showing or defining relationship. Adele Horin in the Sydney Morning Herald this weekend explained the new trend - couples after surviving birthing classes, crying, sick babies, are ready to get married, because of what they have achieved together. Weddings are now because of what has been achieved, and no longer idealistic, optimistic, and hopeful.

Yet on this weekend: dear friends of mine made a statement; their relationship is one that will end with death. They are now making a courageous step, that for better or worse, in health through sickness they will love, cherish, respect and honour each other. As the minister said, it’s a love that asks, ‘how can I show my love now’.

They don’t know what their love will cost them, but they will find out. They haven’t lived together, but from Saturday afternoon, they are husband and wife. The wedding was not about legitimising what they have achieved together, it is about what is to come. At a wedding we see people write a blank cheque, promising to love each other whatever the cost. Life is better and worse, life is filled with sickness and health, wealth and poverty. The bride and the groom promise that through all that life has to put before them they will remain faithful and true to each other, they will continue to put each other above themselves, they will spur each other to grow, and later raise their children in a faithful committed and loving relationship.

Though old taboos have fallen; the substantial majority of people live together before they are married (72%); almost one-third of children are born to mothers who are not married, and 18% are born to cohabiting couples, marriage as instituted by God is a beautiful thing. It declares, to all, the relationship between two people. And it is not about what is achieved or earned.

Marriage says to the world filled with divorce, and growing singleness, that the relationship will not simply last through these trails, but will continue to grow and thrive, in good times, and through bad.

Marriage for the Christian is not about the Bride and the Groom alone per say, it is about showing or witnessing to the world, the Love of God for his people. The Love of a God who loved before time, loved in spite of our enmity; who loved faithfully; and loved sacrificially taking Jesus to the Cross: that sinful people would be saved.