For as long as we both shall live...

If you don't recognize the phrase in the title then you clearly haven't been to as many weddings as I have.:) (Just kidding...sort of.) Anyway, it's commonly spoken in a wedding during the vows. Tonight it popped in my head during the sermon at my church. In all honesty, I don't think my pastor was saying anything at all that had anything to do with weddings but this is the analogy that came to mind in reaction to something he said that got my brain working. Don't ask me what exactly he said because, basically, I'm not exactly sure. All I know is that wedding vows with God became the theme in my brain. I began thinking about how in the wedding the bride and groom make certain strong vows to each other. Here is a sample: On this day I affirm the relationship we have enjoyed, looking to the future to deepen and strengthen it. I will be yours in plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, in failure and in triumph. Together we will dream, will stumble but restore each other, we will share all things, serving each other and our fellow humanity. I will cherish and respect you, comfort and encourage you, be open with you, and stay with you as long as we shall Live, freed and bound by our Love. God spoke to me tonight that this is how He wants each individual relationship with Him to look. He so desires that we would love Him in sickness or health, in plenty and want, in failure and triumph, etc. He aches to dream with us, to walk with us when we stumble and then restore us, and to serve humanity with us. He wants us to cherish and respect Him as He does us. He craves the opportunity to be trusted enough to allow Him to comfort and encourage us, but also for us to be open with Him.....for as long as we shall live. Sadly none of these vows are our human tendency when it comes to God. We're usually with Him in health and angry in sickness, praising Him for the plenty and cursing Him for the want, confident about Him in triumph and suspicious of Him in failure...you get the picture. Here's the clincher. The whole reason He wants us to bind ourselves to Him like this is for the last 6 words of the vow in italics "...freed and bound by our Love".

I'm finally coming to a place in this season of my life where the reality of God as my everything is reaching a new level of depth. Unfortunately, the process to getting there included a lot of vow breaking (so to speak) with not accepting the negatives (like failure and emotional wants). Grateful is an understatement for the feeling I have in regard to how He has stuck with me when I stumbled, as well as for how He continued to cherish, comfort and encourage me in my lowest of moments. I'm overwhelmed by the beautiful reality that my faithlessness has not nullified His faithfulness (Romans 3:3). Thank You, Jesus, for the freedom I have because I am bound by Your love.