For Better Or For Worse

On the Monday morning after their wedding, these two should be waking up to an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, and making the tough decision between snorkeling or laying on the beach. Instead, they are sitting in the hospital, dining on pain meds and water, and making decisions about chemotherapy. They got married last week, soon after they heard this news. The wedding was an amazing display of love and community, as over three hundred people showed up on a Thursday to celebrate with them.   

Although there were many heart-wrenching moments during the ceremony, the part that impacted me more than usual was the vows. "I, Christina, take you Elliott...in sickness and in health, to have and to hold from this day forward. I, Elliott, take you Christina...for better and for worse, as long as we both shall live." During most weddings, the sickness and the worse is far away, and the couple seems momentarily protected from the evils of the world, surrounded by the haze of young love and first dances. 

In the past few weeks, I haven't heard any wavering from them about if they should get married. In a stark contrast to our commitment-phobic generation, they have demonstrated an unwavering loyalty to each other and to their God. There was no hesitation as they vowed these sacred promises to each other, even though they know the cost much more profoundly than most couples their age ever will. They have shown what real love is, what real sacrifice takes, and what it is to lay down your life for the sake of another person. They have so visibly demonstrated how "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:8). 

Please pray for them as their honeymoon is, quite literally, over. They spent the first few days of their married life celebrating at another friend's wedding, and being amazingly focused on others. In all of it, they have been refreshingly themselves. Sobered and quiet at times, yet still silly and giddy newlyweds. Pray that they would see the hand of God protecting and guiding them, that they would spend their days together well, and that they would have grace and strength to walk through each moment.