Well, it’s done! My son Jesse and his wife Amy are married and they are on their honeymoon. (I hope it lasts for many years!) Pray for them as they begin their life together.

The wedding went well and I pray that the Lord was glorified through the service. We tried to make Him the centerpiece of the service.

While the wedding went well, the run-up to the wedding, and the aftermath of the wedding, is a different story! It takes a lot for a couple to get married these days! I was amazed at the amount of work that was required to be sure that everything was just right. It’s a far cry from how things were when my wife and I were married.

In those days I was a poor mill worker and she was a poor shop girl. Although Joan would have loved to have had a church wedding, we couldn’t afford one and neither could either of our parents. So, we went to the Justice of the Peace. Our families went with us, as did our witnesses. Imagine the scene.

There we stand, me in a new suit. My wife in a homemade wedding dress, standing before a man who is a total stranger in the courthouse in Marion, NC. The Justice of the Peace is in front of us. In the right back corner of the room, a Highway Patrolman is booking a man caught driving drunk. The man is in handcuffs. They stop what they are doing while our wedding takes place. After the wedding, the Patrolman and the guy in cuffs both come over to offer their congratulations. It was quite a scene. We still laugh about it today. But, you know, it worked! Twenty-seven years later, Mrs. Joan is still the love of my life, and we are still just as married as if we had spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on a fancy wedding.

Is there a moral to this story? Perhaps! Maybe it teaches us that real, lasting marriages are not forged on the anvil of glitter, flowers and elaborate ceremonies. Real marriages are the work of God putting two people together for a lifetime. If I had it to do over again, I would give my wife the wedding she wanted the first time. If it were left solely up to me, however, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Of course, all this begs another question. Who decided that Pastors have to be the ones to stand and join couples together in marriage? Is this something left over from the dark ages when the Roman church dominated every aspect of people’s lives? I sure can’t find it in the Bible. Oh well, I guess it just comes with the territory for now.

Have a blessed day at the Father’s house. Go to worship Him and for no other reason. Look for Him in every part of the service and you will have a great Sunday, even if no one else does!

Alan Carr