Early October Wedding

My husband's best friend's daughter got married to her sweetheart early in October. 

 

We were grateful to be able to take our daughters and travel to Maryland the day before and settle into a VRBO, a sprawling farmhouse with abundant antiques, artwork, and quilts. The house even had horses that came right up to the back fence. We fed the horses apples every morning we were there. 

The wedding ceremony and reception were beautiful. It was a joy to be with many old friends and celebrate the covenant of Christian marriage and God's faithfulness to all the generations of our families. 

I saw so impressed with our friends' churches. They rallied around the family and helped put on the ceremony and reception, providing all the volunteer labor, thus allowing the family to focus on the event and the young couple to get started in life without so much of a financial burden. 

This made me think of the verse, "They will know we are Christians if we have love one for another."  If I were not already a Christian, I would want what these people have.  

Their churches are filled to bursting with all generations, young people, college students, couples with rows of children, pregnant women, and the aged, all speaking and laughing in community. What a testimony to their churches' obvious emphasis on honoring and supporting the family from start to finish. 

This was one of the first wedding's where my husband and I were solidly in the grown-up generation. Our kids were among the young people literally filling the dance floor, but it was a joy to just watch them celebrate, though we did go out and dance for one song. 

We sang a hymn of blessing over the couple before they headed to their honeymoon. As the minister said in the service, "Marriage is the foundation of society. It allows for the nurture of the young and the care of the old." My husband and I said "Amen" under our breaths and held hands at that moment. We are living that reality everyday, pouring ourselves into raising our daughters, and supporting our aging parents. We have abundant joy choosing to put an emphasis on those family relationships, since they matter so much to God. We are joyful and content to use our adulthood to support the generations that surround us. We say with God, marriage is not just good, it is very good!