Renewing of Vows

Weddings are wonderful things; all that energy, passion, and young new love! There are doves and flowers and a lifetime of promise ahead. Blue sunny skies and flower- festooned smooth pathways stretch onward from the wedding gazebo - a marvelous future awaits!

I don't think you would be getting married if you didn't feel exactly that way. Although the statistic has long hovered around half of all marriages ending in divorce, my guess would be not a single couple starting down the aisle expected it would be them...

But more wonderful than weddings are a renewal of vows.

Do you know why?

Simply because this "bride" and "groom" are no longer young and starry eyed. They've been down the path and found it often strewn with thorns under stormy skies. They've gotten to the place where they understand how couples would call it quits and have seen it happen to ones they love. This couple is not so young and definitely not as naive about what is ahead because they've already walked quite a way on this road of marriage.

I read a comic where a couple was asked what their secret was for the advanced anniversary they were sharing and the reply was "Because we didn't split up." Not exactly an endorsement for a relationship...!

But a renewal of vows, now that is an endorsement, one that says "We have seen the worst of each other and still choose to be together."

Rob and I sang this weekend at a wedding vow renewal, the same song I sang at our wedding actually, and when we came to the stanza that said "I will be here, you can cry on my shoulder, when the mirror tells us we're older, I will hold you." the "bride" started laughing as they were already into the "older" part. Ah, and there is the beauty of it all.

But surprisingly this musing isn't about marriages but about another relationship. Vows made in younger, more naive days. A commitment made to Christ when the path ahead looked like nothing but blue skies and sunshine and when legs were strong and feet anxious to start.

That starting point may be both miles and decades ago now, but the question is this; if you had to do it all again would you? Would you start this relationship and on this journey of faith?

We are the bride of Christ; would you take this opportunity today to "renew your vows" and continue on this journey, loving one another, together?