Married life has been an absolute joy and part of me still struggles to believe that it has already been two months! No doubt, Sherilyn and I are still very in much in the honeymoon stage of marriage, and various sorts of winds and waves will hit us in due course that’ll put our covenant committed to the test. But we’re grateful for this period that we’re in when we get to enjoy the start of a new life together but we’re even more grateful for the promises of marriage held in the Gospel. This is why one of the messages that we really wanted to articulate through our wedding, and hopefully into our married life, is that human relationships (including marriage) are and will be imperfect until Christ’s return. Hence, we decided to ‘name’ the theme of our wedding ‘The Imperfect Wedding’ to communicate this reality. To help explain this further, we wrote up a short little note in our wedding booklets give our guests keys into our hearts and minds, and we thought it’d be a good idea to share this with all of you as well especially as we enter into another busy wedding season. We hope that this will bless you or at least give you something to think about (or something to read to fall asleep to), and we pray that Christians in particular will strive to prepare for their weddings in a way that shows Christ to be supreme. So here it is!
‘One of the fascinating things we’ve observed in the process of preparing for this wedding is that anything with the ‘wedding’ label slapped on it has a significant mark-up in price and hype. Reasonably priced items like clothes, flowers, and even hired cars are doubled and sometimes tripled in cost. Because this practice is so prevalent, it can be so easy to fall into the trap of believing ‘that’s just the way it is’. In fact, it appears that this is exactly what the wedding industry wants us to think and the rationale for this is often: ‘It’s your wedding. It’s one day in your life and its got to be perfect!’ Without a doubt, weddings are special occasions. We are so grateful that you are here to celebrate with us. This is a day that we’ve been eagerly anticipating for a little over half a decade so this really is a celebration of a long-awaited union. As such, special occasions call for special attention, and that’s represented by the nice outfit you’re wearing, the beautifully designed invitations you received, and the wonderful music we’ve heard and sung. But is perfection the goal?
The Bible gives insight into this. It tells us that marriage is a beautiful and good gift from God. In fact, it is a parable of His relationship with His people, and given for the purposes of human flourishing. Seen through this lens, marriage according to the Bible is meant to mirror and point to the relationship between God and the Church. This is a relationship marked by God’s unrelenting, faithful, and jealous love, and by the Church’s grateful reception, humble submission, and willing obedience. This of course is grounded in Jesus Christ, who offers all who put their trust in Him the forgiveness of sins, the right to be reconciled with God, and the profound privilege of being called into His community called the Church. Given this magnificent view of marriage, it is unsurprising that the Bible (and in fact, the history of humanity) begins with a marriage in the Garden of Eden and ends with a marriage in the New Creation – the New Eden.
This leads us back to the question: is perfection the goal of weddings? Well, at least not for our earthly weddings because they are images (though wonderful and beautiful) of the greater glory that is the come. They foreshadow the perfect marriage that we see in Scripture. Yet, how incredible is it that God in His grace and kindness would allow us to enjoy the goodness of marriage! So we hope and pray that your time with us this morning at our imperfect wedding has given you the space and opportunity to gaze upon this magnificent reality – the true perfect wedding that is to come. Soli Deo Gloria!
Elliot Ku 
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