Wedding Fallout

On the weekend I had the joy of being best man at a mates wedding in Melbourne. I thought I would post about this particular wedding because of the nature of this particular couple. You see these too people not only felt it was right to marry, but that God was calling them to get married.

This is the bit were everyone gets uncomfortable. These two raise a lot of issues we put in the "better not talk about it" basket. We have divine will, visions, the voice of God, chastity and modesty, pre-marital sex, covenants and God's involvement in marriage. And that's before we start really looking.

Needless to say, I'm not going to try to talk about this all now. All I want to do right now is tell you a bit of their story, just for thinking material.

Jason had always held the idea of God having picked out a girl for him very close. From a young age he began praying for the girl, whoever she happened to be. He trusted, that when the time was right, God would bring that girl into his life, and really until that time came, he didn't want any relationships.

At a certain age the girls in Sarah's family make a covenant, or promise with their father. In this promise the daughter commits to remaining pure. The promise is made over a gold key, which her father proceeds to wear around his neck, until the day comes when he is to hand the key to another man. (this touches heavily on the topic of pre-marital sex from the Christian perspective which is to much of an issue to explain here so I fully expect this to be a hard practice to understand)

One day, at an interschool camp, Jason and Sarah met. By the time Jason came home, he felt that this could be the girl. So, after talking to his parents, he began to pray. He prayed long and hard. Eventually he decided to ask Sarah's dad for permission to court her. That's right, court not date. Fine difference, but the essential point is that Jason's intention was to marry her.

Now Sarah's father told Jason he would also have to pray before agreeing to anything. After several weeks of prayer without answer he had a vision. The details of the vision he still hasn't revealed in full, but it was clear to him that the relationship was the will of God. So he allowed Jason to ask Sarah to begin courting. Sarah speedily agreed as she liked Jason as much as he liked her.

After two years of dates and quality time (always chaperoned), devotions and prayer over the phone every day, Jason asked Sarah to marry him. That led, inexorably, to the wedding last week end, were Sarah's father handed that key to Jason.

Jason and Sarah are a rare example of the extreme other way of doing romance. To be honest I've been a bit blown away by it.

But what baring does it have on us? Well, I think it's one thing to talk about ideals and principles, it's another all together to see them in action.