A wedding is, among other things, the culmination of a waiting for a marriage relationship with someone. On it rides the hopes of all things good, good things that come from a marriage.
Our marriages are but a fore-shadowing of the ultimate relationship we will have with God in His fully manifest kingdom. In some ways, a wedding signals our desire for this ultimate relationship. It indicates our aspiration to commit ourselves to the things that make that possible (faith).
Weddings can remind us of that commitment, of that desire...even in painful ways...for what we ultimately hope for, whether we experience it now or not. We should continue to hope for such things, to have faith for such things, to love for such things.
For marriage inevitably becomes the flagship of all other relationships. One's own home is the place where love must first be practiced before it can truly be practiced anywhere else. No one likes to be out of joint with a good friend or with in-laws or with an employer, but such problem at least can be tolerated. Yet any little thing that comes between a man and his wife is capable of wrenching them apart inside, and if that is not the case, then it can only be due to the growth of a callousness in them that cannot help carrying over into all their other relationships. A husband and wife are "one flesh," and to be alienated from one another is equivalent to being alienated from their own bodies. How can a man who harbors bitterness towards himself be anything but bitter toward the rest of the world? "He who loves his wife loves himself," says Paul (Ephesians 5:28).
-- Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage
