Borrowed, Blue, Old, and oh-so New...

I just arrived home from the sweetest wedding. The couple wasn't rich or particularly beautiful- but their story is. A lot of people might take one look and call them "trailer trash" because of where they live and because of their individual pasts... but how God has changed them from the inside out- and what a privilege it has been to watch.

They've been coming to our church since 2007 and have three young children. One his, one hers, one theirs. We learned their story shortly after they started attending. They were ex-druggies, having just recently both quit during the pregnancy of their child, who was almost one. They were still struggling with their addictions and knew something needed to change.

After attending for a few weeks, they committed their lives to Christ and jumped in with both feet. They both started serving and learning and got involved in starting a family lifegroup with another young couple. She serves faithfully in our children's ministry and he shows up at 7am every Sunday morning to help with set up. Someone from a more traditional church in town visited and asked why we were letting them serve in our church... did we know they weren't even MARRIED? We said, "Yup... look at how God is changing their lives... isn't it amazing? A year ago they would have never darkened the door of a church, let alone serve in one! They'll get there... God is working on them." That person never returned (can't say I'm sad about that loss).

They had been living together for over a year. In the middle of our marriage series last summer, it occurred to them that what they were doing was not right in the eyes of God- and they decided to fix that. They couldn't afford to live separately, so they lived purely- under the same roof for almost eight months until they got married.

Today was the big day... and it was her dream wedding. She insisted on having it in the school cafeteria where we hold church every Sunday. She said, "I could go to a real church building out here to have the wedding... but it wouldn't be my church... and this is my church right here in this cafeteria. This is home to me." So we had a sweet wedding in a decorated cafeteria- with vows that meant so much. All of our elders and their wives came, and there was a huge show of support from the church body. It was wonderful and it's the moments like this that help me remember that this is all worth it.

I came across this quote by Price Pritchard last week and I loved it: "Change always comes bearing gifts." Amen.