I write this on my way back from an amazing weekend with friends in Cape Town!
As an aside it never ceases to amaze me just how incredible technology is! I am writing this post on my Sony UX50 palmtop on a flight somewhere between Cape Town and Johannesburg. Anyway, enough of that, back to what really matters.
As I mentioned I am at the end of a fantastic weekend with some very special friends. Today I was honoured, once again, to officiate at the wedding ceremony of two close friends. This time the two special friends who allowed me the grace of sharing in their special day were Mike and Jane Willis. The day itslef was absolutely perfect in so many ways! The chance to be with friends that I had not been with for almost a year was great. Perfect surroundings! And, the weather was magnificent in Somerset West and Stellenbosch.
The ceremony itself took place in a glorious little chapel in the Stellenbosch vineyards. The little chapel has a wonderful story to it. It was built by the farmer who had hit upon hard times. He did what we all should do in such situations, he came before God in prayer. Apparently, as an act of faith, he promised to build a Chapel for the labourers on his farm to show his devotion and gratitude to God for God's faithfulness. The story ends both with a glorious place in which to worship, and also with a magnificent testimony to God's desire to respond to a call for help with grace and abundance.
In many ways marriage is something like that, in committing to dream in hope of something miraculous and good that is to come. We dig the foundations and commit to the building of something, a place - a sacred space, in which we can encounter the truth of life, the intention of love, and the hope of joy. Marraige is fundamentally a commitment made in faith based on hope, and ultimately realised in love.
The promise itself does not realise the hope, neither does the wonderful act of faith that is reflected in the promise of commitment. What makes the space real, what creates that place of sacred encounter and joyous discovery, is that verb... love. Love is something you build.
Mike and Jane, may you be blessed with the reward you hope for and have faithfully committed to as you build your love in the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years to come.
"These three remain - faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 3:13)