Why We’re Fascinated with Weddings

I seem to be thinking a lot about weddings lately.  This week my husband and I celebrated our 32nd anniversary of our wedding in 1986.  Where does the time go?  There is another wedding on the horizon in our family as our youngest just proposed to the love of his life and will be getting married next year.

And then, of course, millions of people are tuning in to see the wedding of a prince and princess today.  Have you noticed that the people being interviewed are absolutely giddy about the marriage of two people they have never met?

A friend asked me yesterday if I was going to watch it and why I thought so many people are fascinated by it.  My answer may have surprised him because I don’t think it’s about the dress or the royalty or even the gossip.  I think it’s about heaven.  Not in the sense of “oh isn’t love heavenly?” …. I mean heaven.

The book of Ecclesiastes says that “God has made all things beautiful in its time and He has also set eternity in the human heart” (Ecc. 3:11).  Our fascination with weddings is evidence of that secret treasure that God has placed in every human being that He has created.

Everyone’s favorite part of the wedding ceremony is the grand processional.  The bride makes her long-awaited entrance and she locks eyes with the groom.  Royal weddings especially give me chills as the grand music begins and the dramatic cathedral train of the bride’s dress flows down the aisle behind her.  Oh, how we love to see the groom’s eyes full of love and adoration for his bride.

What is it about weddings?

When we witness a wedding, we are seeing into the future….it is the future of all who have put their hope in Jesus.  The Bible describes the Kingdom of God culminating with a wedding…The Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  The bride of Christ is His church and he will present her in all her glory, perfect and blameless some day.  He died for His bride so that they can spend eternity together.

It’s more than just our vicarious experience of seeing two people in love.  The deepest longing of the human heart is being awakened…to know and to be deeply loved by God,  the One who made us and loves us eternally and will never fail us.  That is why weddings and marriages are so important.  They represent this deeper, eternal truth.  They are a shadow of what is to come.