A day for celebration

Almost 30 years ago I spent the early hours of my 23rd birthday glued to the television, watching the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.  So it was only natural that I would also watch today when their son, Prince William, married Catherine (Kate) Middleton.   

The wedding was beautiful.  Westminster Abbey is an absolutely majestic setting and the ethereal voices of the choir, along with the pealing bells, organ, and trumpets added aural grandeur to the visual splendor of soaring arches and Gothic architecture.  Even discounting the approximately 1000 years of history linking the Abbey with the royal family, Westminster Abbey truly is a setting fit for a future king and his queen-to-be.

As I watched the service, one of the things that struck me the most was the fact that this truly was a Christian wedding ceremony.  The prayers, the hymns and choral pieces, and the address given by the Bishop of London all pointed directly to the Lordship and sovereignty of God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The ceremony was as much a service of worship as it was the union of a man and woman as husband and wife.

Listening to the familiar words of the vows and holy scripture, I wondered if anyone else was hearing the injunctions to commitment and fidelity while at the same time pondering the members of the royal family in attendance who had failed to honor their matrimonial vows.

Three out of four of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's children have divorced.  The marital track record of the royal family does not bode well for Prince William and his bride.  Yet he seems to genuinely love Catherine and she seems to be equally in love with him.  Hopefully her parent's successful marriage of more than thirty years will be the model that they will strive to emulate.

Most importantly, I hope they will choose to emulate the perfect model of Christ and His bride, the church.  I pray that the words that were spoken and sung at William and Catherine's marriage ceremony are words that are living and active in their lives.  I pray that as these newlyweds grow closer together as husband and wife they will also grow closer to Jesus, their True Sovereign.  Their love and devotion to not only each other, but also to the Lord would be a powerful and beautiful testimony to an avid global audience.