Just Married

The other day as Pam and I were making our way to an undisclosed destination (undisclosed because I don’t remember) from the passenger’s side of the car I spotted a vehicle with the windshield marked with the familiar words, “Just Married.” I was anxious to pull up along side the happy couple because my curiosity was sparked by the appearance of their joyful message. “Just Married” had been painted on in brown. Now, I don’t know about you but such blissful announcements seem to mandate cheerful colors or wedding white but not dirt clod brown. Viewing the happy couple as we pulled along side of them didn’t seem to add any explanation… so a very dangerous thing happened… my imagination took the driver’s wheel and spun off into possibilities. Maybe this couple had been married for awhile and the letters weren’t brown but rather covered in dirt? Or could it be that this was a prank and that somebody had discovered white paint that gradually turned brown? Or what if these were really bad terrorist who hadn’t done their homework and they were on their way to blow up a church? No… that’s too sinister but maybe they are farmers or green peace nuts who are celebrating both marriage and the good earth? -you see why I said it was dangerous!

Now, I have had practice with this take the ball and run with it stream of consciousness. I’ve often been on my way to an undisclosed destination as I’ve read through Scripture only to find something that just didn’t seem right to me. I’d get stuck on the color of it all and miss the message. I would shake my head at Paul or humph at Moses and the prophets thoroughly unsatisfied with their obtuse, incomplete or inconsistent renderings. I wanted black or white and they were giving brown… or any other color than what I thought was the right shade! Somewhere along the journey though I decided to be still and know that God wanted me to hear the whisper not the thunder… to delight in the message not the package it came in. So, maybe it’s okay to have “Just Married” in brown because it’s the message that counts –not the color.

All of this is to say… we live in an imperfect world with imperfect knowledge to make sense out of the nonsense we struggle with. Should we seek truth and pursue it? Well, of course we should, but only if we resolve that the way, the truth and the life are not determined by externals like color, shape or form but in Jesus the living Word of God! I love that God continues to challenge us with the puzzling, humble us with the unknowable and enable us with undeserved love that invites us to the wedding feast to become His Son's bride! -DAN