Fox Run Regional Park, Black Forest, Colorado
This gazebo reminds me of weddings. In fact, I have been blessed to be a part of two weddings under this gazebo.
I have often told the story at weddings of a couple on their wedding day where the pastor, instead of using the wedding service, turned to the baptismal service and asked the the bride, "Do you renounce this devil and all his works and all his ways?"
Marriage can feel like renouncing the devil. Marriage is the one institution where we can taste both heaven and hell...and in the same day.
"That's why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will be one." Ephesians 5:31 God's Word to the Nations
The mystery of being one flesh with another human creature is something that both scars us and attracts us.
On the one hand, we want to be known by another person, to be vulnerable and intimate with someone else. We want to experience a taste of heaven through another human being.
On the other hand, such intimacy scars us because we don't like becoming vulnerable and known to another person. As a result, marriage can be a taste of hell, of separation.
Over this mystery of becoming one flesh is the covering of God's mercy in Christ. Whether we're married or not, anticipating marriage or content with being single, we are the Bride of Christ, and he continually calls his Bride to himself in grace and mercy.
As a result, his desire is for this grace and mercy to weave it's way through your marriage.
I know that some of you reading this blog have marriages that are struggling. Don't give up! It is my prayer that you sense the forgiveness of Christ pulsing through the blood of your marriage.
Join the conversation at Praying With the Eyes on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/groups/173881749421231/
I have often told the story at weddings of a couple on their wedding day where the pastor, instead of using the wedding service, turned to the baptismal service and asked the the bride, "Do you renounce this devil and all his works and all his ways?"
Marriage can feel like renouncing the devil. Marriage is the one institution where we can taste both heaven and hell...and in the same day.
"That's why a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will be one." Ephesians 5:31 God's Word to the Nations
The mystery of being one flesh with another human creature is something that both scars us and attracts us.
On the one hand, we want to be known by another person, to be vulnerable and intimate with someone else. We want to experience a taste of heaven through another human being.
On the other hand, such intimacy scars us because we don't like becoming vulnerable and known to another person. As a result, marriage can be a taste of hell, of separation.
Over this mystery of becoming one flesh is the covering of God's mercy in Christ. Whether we're married or not, anticipating marriage or content with being single, we are the Bride of Christ, and he continually calls his Bride to himself in grace and mercy.
As a result, his desire is for this grace and mercy to weave it's way through your marriage.
I know that some of you reading this blog have marriages that are struggling. Don't give up! It is my prayer that you sense the forgiveness of Christ pulsing through the blood of your marriage.
Join the conversation at Praying With the Eyes on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/groups/173881749421231/
(Click on picture to enlarge.)
Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2013 Douglas P. Brauner. ARR.
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