Dearly Beloved...

Well, I just got back from a wedding... the second day of our celebration. In many ways it was a unique wedding... especially some of the things that happened behind the scene and before the event.

But in other ways it was similar. And one of the ways was the use of the words, 'dearly beloved'. Which made me think about the standard conclusion to those words. You remember, it goes something like this, "Dearly beloved, We are gathered here today, in the presence of God. and in the face of family and friends, to join together this man And this woman..."

Well, in a moment of distraction I thought through the implications of these words, and it came to me, "No, we don't."

*We* do not join the man and the woman together. We cannot. Oh, the father of the bride may, quite legitimately, 'give' her to the man. He might transfer her from his authority and jurisdiction to that of her new husbands. But no one at that event, no human, may 'join' the man and the woman.

What do we read? "What *God* has joined together, let no man put asunder." Not, 'what the church has joined together'. Not 'what the preachers have joined together'. Not, "What the state has joined together'."

So, let us rejoice in what has been done in the marriage of our two friends. But, even more, let us rejoice that it wasn't us who did the 'joining'.