To Birmingham and Back

Yesterday, Jen and I went to a wonderful wedding.  Our dear friend, Brandon, married his beloved, Tara.  I can't tell you how excited I was and am for both of them.  I haven't been excited about someone else being married in a long time.  Perhaps it is because of the way Brandon became such a brother to me in the years we spent together in Louisville, perhaps it is just a matter of having learned more of the wonderful bliss that marriage is.  I have no idea.  I know this, Brandon and Tara are going to have one of the most blessed experiences possible, because they actually get what marriage is supposed to be about, in a way I know I didn't when I first got married.

Later, sometime, I suppose I'll go into a long reflection on marriage itself, but that isn't really why I started writing this post.  In part I just wanted to mention that wonderful wedding.  Believe me, it was really beautiful.

My favorite chuckle of the evening: the processional of the Bride was "Come thou fount of every blessing."  I know, the song is about Christ, but I love the double meaning, the symbolic nature of marriage, and the way a bride represents, for many a man, that idea: she is the fount of every blessing (I know this is, metaphorically speaking, the way I feel about my bride, I can only hope it is the same for others).  I actually did laugh a little when I saw it, though I have a feeling I'm probably the only one who really thinks or thought it was funny.

On the way back I told Jen I was feeling a bit poetic in thinking about driving there and back.  She asked me what I meant, and I told her:

Today, I have driven over 200 miles.  That means that for 200 miles the engine of this car has been compressing gas, combining it with heat and pressure and causing the release of energy with explosive force.  The force that this engine harnesses would rip my body to shreds were I to seek to contain it.

At the same time, this energy has not only been contained, but directed, put to work turning crankshafts and powering the many aspects of this car that are essential to its function.  All of that turning and energy has created friction and heat.  That heat, were I to try to hold it, would singe my flesh and burn me down to the bone.

The turning shafts of metal in the car are hooked up in such a way that they spin the tires of this car.  Those tires spin and move with such speed that my muscles would tear and my tendons snap if I were to try to keep up with them.  And in those tires is air, countless molecules, bouncing and moving, impacting each other so often that I cannot even comprehend the number of collisions occurring within any one of those tires, much less all four of them.  And we are not the only ones on the road, there are so many vehicles on any one stretch of road in America that I doubt I could count them if they were all brought together at one time.

In all of this I am brought back to what Hebrews says, that Christ "upholds the universe by the power of his word."  For 200 miles, for 4 hours of driving, Christ has been keeping all of this together, where I could not hold together even one part of it.  Then I realize, it is not just these 200 miles, it is for the thousands of years that the world has existed, it is through eternity past, before creation began, when he with wisdom knew what he would do, with no teacher, no educator, no instructor, and no councilor, according to his awesome power and knowledge.  My God is so great he has been upholding all things, at all times, and he will do so even unto the last judgment, when he will create all things new, a perfect world for his children.

Grasp this: that this is the God we serve, this is the God we know and love, this is the power of God who is our all in all!  A spinning tire, a turning crank shaft, the compression and explosion of gasoline for the purpose of travel, my God holds all of this in his hand.  His word has spoken it into being and allows it to continue, and all of it is for his glory.  This is the God I serve, this is my God!  To whom will you compare him?  To what would you hold him up as his likeness?

How great and wonderful our God is, who does all things well!  His glory is proclaimed by all things, both the simple and the complex.  If we but meditate on any one part of creation and seek to understand what goes on within it, we are laid low in humility as we come before the awesome might, and awful reality, of the living God.  Hebrews so rightly says that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  For if he can do all of this, how much more are we assured that he can, and will, judge us who will stand before him when he calls us?

But, how wondrous it is to know that because of the death and resurrection of Christ, I stand innocent, justified before the judge of the universe!  He, who has the power to number and order the collisions of atoms within the heart of a star, has the power to wipe away my sins.  He, who has the glory of all of creation as a testimony to his beauty, gave that up to die on a cross for my sake.  And his Father, my God, has given him a greater reward: A bride more beautiful, because she partakes of his glory, covered in his blood.  This is the God I love.  How could I do anything else?

Yesterday, I went to experience one wedding, and I rejoiced with my dear brother as he married his beloved, but one day, I will enjoy a better wedding.  I look forward to that day, because then I will see the one for whom I have longed.  How then can we not rejoice, knowing what is coming?  How then can we not praise God when he demonstrates his glory for us on a daily basis?  Our God, he is an awesome God.  Hallelujah!