Let me not to the marriage of true minds
admit impediments; love is not love
that alters when it alteration finds
nor bends with the remover to remove.
O no! It is an ever fixed mark
that looks on tempests and is never shaken -
it is the star to every wandering bark
whose worth's unknown, though it's height be taken.
Love's not times fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
within his bending sickles compass come
love alters not with his brief hours and weeks
but bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved,
I ne'er writ, nor no man e'er loved.
Of all Shakespeare's sonnets, this is my favourite.
His lyrical words, intriguing imagery, flowing rhythm and controlled rhyming scheme all combine to create one of the best expressions of true Love that I have ever come across.
It is a Love that stays is dependable during the storms of life.
It is a Love that remains steadfast and eternal, though all else changes with time.
It is a Love that is strange and not completely understandable, but absolutely vital for finding ones way in the turbulence of life.
It is a Love that does not change just because something else has come a long to claim it, but a Love that remains faithful when everything is conspiring to take it away.
These images of Love can be found throughout the Bible, but the Bible takes it one step further:
Love is sacrifice, it is agape, and only through God can we really receive and pass on this Love, because only God as agape loved perfectly - to the point of death by crucifixion.
The Love demanded in the Bible, the Love demand for God and for each other, is this Love, this agape, life-giving Love.
It is HUGE. It is Love. And it is True.
Last Saturday, I had the honour of attending the engagement party of two dear friends. He used to be my youth group leader, her I have only met a handful of times, but I already know her to be a woman of beauty and agape love. As he is.
It has been a privilege to watch their relationship grow and develop, and it was a joy to watch them at the party. Their relationship is based not on their love for each other, but their love for God. Their joy in His eternal agape love and their willingness to be a tool to transmit that along to the rest of the world.
You could see it.
You could see it in the love their eyes held for each other and the way the worked together, and it could be heard in every word they said about each other.
True love. They have found true love. Not in each other, but in God. God who has expressed His Love for them both by leading them to each other.
Now, as they move towards marriage, my prayer is that they will remember the truth about Love.
The Truth that Love is Eternal. The Truth that Love is Vital. The Truth that Love is Faithful. The Truth that Love is Demanding. The Truth that Love is Sacrifice. The Truth the Love is God because God is the Source of all Love and the Ultimate Expresser of Love.
I pray that they will always remember the Truth about their love for each other.
That it is Gift from God. That without Him it is dead. That it is Given to them that they may share it first with each other, then with any children who may come along and finally with all those they come in contact with.
I pray that each day they are married they will wake up, look at each other a remember that no matter how hard it is, they are a Gift to each other, a precious, hand-made expression of God's love.
I pray that every day they will seek to live out the agape Love that God has poured into both, Loving each other through acts of service, even when their desire is to demand service.
I pray that every day they remember that each is Beautifully and Wonderfully made and that they seek to say so, even in the midst of hurt and anger, that God's words of Love may find a voice in them.
I pray that every day they come before God together, spending time with the Source of their Love and with each other, that they do not forget the foundation of their relationship.
I pray that every day that are willing to set down what ever arms and barriers they wish to build, and remember to act as the Forgivng arms of God for each, for Love forgives all things.
And finally, I thank God that the presence of His love in them has and will enrich our church family as it flows from them onto all of us.
Because there is no greater Love than that a man gives of himself and his life, laying it down as an offering for the uplifting of others, in the image of the Christ. Amen.
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