A Marriage Made in Heaven

Weddings happen every day. There’s no telling how many couples get married on any given day of the week, all over the world. When my husband and I got married a long time ago, most of the people I knew got married in their home church. My husband and I were married in my south Alabama hometown, in the church I had attended since we moved there when I was in the fourth grade.

Most wedding ceremonies/services I’ve attended have been about the same. Ours was beautiful, officiated by my Daddy’s twin brother, a Presbyterian minister. It was likely a typical ceremony of the day, from a book, which we still have, with all the words to be said by him and repeated by us. Our service included a promise to love and to covenant. I had no clue what covenant meant as a young bride, other than just a promise.

COVENANT MARRIAGE

To covenant means so much more than just a promise. It’s an unbreakable agreement between the groom, the bride, and God. Yes, in any Christian marriage ceremony, God should be the center of every word spoken during the vow exchange. That covenant.

As I said, we were both clueless when we got married at such a young age. We were both in our early twenties, raised in the church, he a Baptist, I a Methodist. We knew nothing. Literally nothing about the nature of God, what a true marriage was. Of course, we saw our parents who were married for a long, long time. But we had no idea how one kept a marriage covenantal, holy, God-honoring. We didn’t even know what that was. We had a lot to learn.

And learn, we did. It took a long time, but we eventually landed on our knees at the foot of the cross of Jesus. We now know this is where we should have been the first time we said our vows.

This past weekend, we attended the wedding of our grand-nephew. He is the grandson of my husband’s sister and her husband. They’ve been married for fifty-seven years. Congratulations, Kay and Randy!

A Marriage Made in Heaven @DDuPreeWilliams #CovenantMarriage #Writing Share on X

CHRIST AT THE CENTER OF YOUR MARRIAGE

I have never heard a more Christ-centered marriage ceremony in my life. The officiant was amazing in presenting a picture of a Christian marriage. He told us the Bible begins with the marriage of Adam and Eve performed by God Himself, and it ends with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when Christ takes His bride, the church, for all eternity. What a glorious day that will be!

Do you remember your wedding vows? My husband and I renewed our vows on our fiftieth anniversary in 2023. Our vows for this one were very different from the first promises we made to one another. This time, we know what a real marriage is. The words we said had deeper meaning as we are much older, and with God’s help, far wiser than the twenty-somethings who made vows all those years ago. We still love one another, but it is far different now.

52 YEARS

This coming Monday, my precious husband and I will celebrate fifty-two years of marriage. As kids, we saw marriage far differently than we do now. In these fifty-two years, we’ve had ups and downs, good days and horrible days. We’ve had our share of heartaches and our share of outrageous joys. God has blessed us with four beautiful sons, our one daughter-of-our-hearts, and two beloved granddaughters.

It took us a while, but we now have the marriage God intended us to have from the start—one with Him at the center. Complete surrender of your marriage to God is what it takes to make it this long. I pray yours was, or will be, Christ-centered from the start.

Blessings, y’all!

Beautiful song. You know I love Paul Wilbur. If you’ve never heard this one, it is beautiful!!