[1]
“Wedding of the Century” is a term tossed around far more often than every 100 years.
Approximately 750 million people viewed the 1981 nuptials of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer on TV, with the wedding of their son, William, to Catherine Middleton receiving similar fanfare 30 years later. Before that, sports and movie royalty became an item when Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio wed Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe in 1954. Tennis fans would argue that Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf’s ceremony in 2001 justifies the title. So would those of Elvis when The King married Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez were the latest to receive such treatment. He has a net worth of around $238 billion; she is a former news anchor. Oprah Winfrey, Ivanka Trump and Tom Brady were among the celebrity guests for the $56 million event recently held in Venice.
The wedding scene is fresh on my mind. On June 6, I escorted my daughter down the aisle. She is our oldest, but will always be our baby girl.
Planning came with the typical gotta-be-the-perfect-day stress and this-is-really-happening moments, like her trying on the dress for the first time and shopping for apartments with her fiancé as her final months living in our home wound down.
[2]The event was perfect. I couldn’t be happier with the young man she met at a college Bible study. The reception was full of young people dancing and laughing, older people attempting to dance and talking. The day was emotional and exhausting, but most of all beautiful.
The beginning of a marriage is important, but everyone knows it’s just that … the beginning. Anyone even a few years into their marriage (my wife and I celebrate our 28th anniversary this December) knows this.
I’m old enough to know that to be good at something, never let yourself think there’s nothing more to learn. Always find ways to grow. Check on the areas where you fall short. Credit yourself in areas you excel, then work to make those even better.
The wedding image is one found throughout Scripture, culminating in the relationship between Christ and the Church. The two cannot be separate. I’m called to love my wife as Christ loved the church, to the point of self-sacrifice. Want to show how much you love yourself? Love your wife first.
Despite these attempts, the relationship will be imperfect and have its share of snags.
In the lead-up to my daughter’s wedding, I was so focused on her that the importance of the wedding party didn’t really strike me until that day. The bridesmaids and groomsmen included lifelong friends, but were made up mostly of those who didn’t know each other four years ago. They became acquainted through a college ministry background, growing in their faith together. The wedding day simply wouldn’t have been the same without them, and I don’t mean just helping with the setup and cleaning afterwards. I’ve told them how thankful I am for them.
Sure, their time has included drama, but that was overwhelmed by all the good stuff that comes with making Christ the center of relationships.
That lesson applies to the individuals who make up the Church. Ministry breakthroughs don’t come solely from an event or guest speaker, the highly visible stuff, but from a person taking individual time with Christ in prayer and study, becoming changed in that time, then becoming part of and – here’s the big step – contributing within a larger body of believers.
Many marriages that began with weddings of the century haven’t lasted anywhere near that long, despite the showy start. Meanwhile, marriages that began in a small church with the reception held in a wood-paneled fellowship hall have endured for generations.
It isn’t about how you start. I would say it’s not so much about how you finish. It’s about what you do during the in-between that gets you to the finish.
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