Ecclesiastes 3:4 “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.”
This verse in the Bible came alive to me so clearly on Sunday night at our couple’s dinner. In one banquet room, there was a beautiful bride dressed in white and a handsome groom celebrating a day filled with hope and promises. On this day they promised to love each other through joy and sorrow, sickness and health, rich or poor, until death. They were surrounded by a community of people celebrating and showing support for the vows that were said, a day full of hope for the future. On this day, rose colored glasses adorned the eyes of this loving couple.
In the other banquet room are couples who are experiencing the most difficult time a married couple could ever possibly go through, the loss of a child. The wedding vows spoken years ago are being tested like never before. These two rooms filled with married couples who have each repeated the same vows. One couple’s vows not yet tested; the other couples’ vows trying to weather a fierce storm.
If we could bring this newly married couple into our setting, oh, what knowledge we could share with them. How Satan is going to throw everything he can at them to destroy this love they have for one another. He is no respecter of vows made. The couples in our room could offer years of experience on how they have managed to weather life’s storms. We, on the other hand, can learn from this newly married couple. We can recall our day of wedded bliss and remember what we promised on that day, to love and cherish through all of life’s struggles. We might consider slipping on those rose colored glasses again to see the person we once decided to make these marriage vows with. It is in the trenches of life that we need to choose to stand on the vows that were said when life looked full of hope.
Lord, vows were made on a day filled with hope and joy. Vows are tested each and every day after. We pray for marriages wearing rose colored glasses and those marriages that have had their glasses tarnished by life’s daily struggles.
