life, death, new life.

Today: wedding

Next Saturday: memorial service

All these things are life changing, for many people.

Dayna and Mark start a new life today, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer. All the details, the planning, the stress, is all paying off today for as long as they both shall live. Their lives will never be the same.

Next Saturday, probably hundreds of people will gather to remember Steven's life. For him, as C.S Lewis put it, "The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning." Those of us left in the Shadowlands will grieve our earthly loss, and celebrate Steven's heavenly gain. (Can anyone else see him cracking people up in heaven?) He leaves an unfillable space behind him.

I had a professor who once posed the question, "Ah, but which is the metaphor, and which is the real thing?" in talking about earthly weddings and Christ and His bride. The events of this coming week feel like a giant metaphor. Weddings are a small shadow of the real thing. The fleeting happiness and excitement of today will be permanent when Christ comes back to rescue his bride.

Steven was loved by many, many people. I wasn't surprised, as I clicked through his memorial service page on facebook to see a couple hundred people planning on attending that I'd never seen before. His life affected an innumerable amount of people, as has his death. The service will be in the same building as the wedding today. There will be tears at both, for different reasons. But both events hold the promise of something far greater. God has redeemed, is redeeming, and will redeem His children.