A Wedding Toast for All Seasons

By SUE HELLINGS
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
You know the story, so we’ll fast forward to today’s reading, starting with verse 26.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.
“Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ God saw all that he had made and it was very good.”
Then Genesis chapter 2 expands the story with more details like God creating a suitable partner, Eve, for Adam, and God telling them to work and care for their farm, and concludes with verse 24:
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”
This creation story has been told, trusted and valued across different cultures, geographies, millennia and languages and yet never is it more relevant and powerful than reading it specifically for brides and grooms on their wedding day.
Because its message is not a scientific treatise, not even a moral philosophy, but rather it is a love story…
The Creator God, creating a man and a woman to be suitable lovers for each other and for Himself. But first God reveals his creativity, his order, his beauty as he creates a world appropriate for those he will love.
And then he reaches the pinnacle of his creative complexity: humankind—male and female—made in his image, to give and receive love.
Verse 31 then concludes, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”
But if we stop listening to the story right there, we miss the crescendo:
For God takes his man and woman and creates in them the capacity and desire to leave their singleness and become one flesh—a new family—it’s a beautiful and compelling mystery.
And so I invite all of you here today to witness with me this Crescendo of God creating a new family! Having first created you two and then drawing you to love Him, and now drawing you to love each other, I am sure He is saying,
“This is so way very good…like awesome.”
As big of a crescendo as this wedding day is, it is only the first day of what we hope are many days for you to live out the purpose of your new family.
God has created this couple and empowered them to continue His task of creating, loving, care-taking his whole world for all of eternity. Then God commissions you to use your new family’s creation powers in several specific tasks.
First He says, “Make love.”
Yes, I mean that kind; make love! That’s the “one flesh” part. Real “love making” is not the self-serving sex of our entertainment culture; it is the intimate giving of your mind, heart, body, future, past…everything—which when given to your spouse—makes even more love given back.
The compelling mystery of God multiplying our gifts, and like the loaves and fishes, having so much left over that it overflows onto other people.
Which brings us to creative task number two: Create relationships.
It may be your love making creates children—if so, fill them with God’s love, wisdom, peace, strength, beauty, and order. If you aren’t “fruitful” as the scripture says, then pour your love on some other children in the world who need it.
But also let your love overflow in creating happy healthy relationships with the families gathered here, your church family, with each other’s friends, and with new friends.
Communicating can be hard work but it creates relationships. If you don’t have enough love to give others, ask God to increase your love together until you are overflowing.
The third creative task comes from the scripture about ruling over the fish and livestock and subduing the earth. That was the work of an agrarian society.
Our work may be with plants and animals, or it may be with toddlers and laundry or with students and books or with offices and computers.
As a family you are empowered to help each other in your daily work, to subdue the tasks of the day. Create order, beauty and productivity out of the small desert or weed patch or storm that is your work world.
Encourage and energize each other to work. And if you have extra resources of time, strength, ability or space, together you may even be able to help a neighbor create order out of their weedy patch—that’s the idea of missions. With your resources you need never be bored.
Now creative task number four: The weeds and the work at your place of employment sometimes feel more rewarding to conquer than the weeds in your home, but they are not more important. Create a home of order, comfort, beauty, cleanliness, peace and some real good fun.
Provide the place where love can grow, mimicking the Garden of Eden and foreshadowing heaven. May your hospitality create blessings for all who live there or visit you.
I’m guessing all those challenges to “create” sound daunting, and folks here will testify that on any given day, the strains on your family will be huge but there is relief.
Exodus 20 tells you to pattern your family’s creating efforts after your loving God’s example: Start with verse 9.
Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to your God. Don’t do any work. For in six days God made heaven, earth and sea and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as a holiday.
So creation challenge number five is to follow that advice and give yourselves a break — enjoy what’s been created: your love, friends, family, church family, home, outdoors, etc.
The Sabbath is made for smiles!
I hope these words today have been God’s revealed word to you, so I’d like to end this the way Jesus ended his Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 7:24-27:
These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who build his house on solid rock.
Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit, but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.
But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”
So I pray you will be like the smart carpenter; build your new married life on the Words of God and enjoy the mystery, power, and love that comes from living a life together to your created potential.