This is a day I've dreamt of for years.
I've always loved you, even long before I knew your name.
The night I met you my spirit leapt inside of me.
I knew right away you were the one I had been waiting for.
It's truly a marvelous thing when faith you've held fast to for years in an invisible ideal is suddenly staring you in the face through an exceedingly beautiful woman.

There are many things about this world I've yet to understand.
God's love for His church, and Melissa's love for me.
Or why my Heavenly father would entrust his most lovely and precious daughter
Into the care of these hands; so corrupt, callous, and weathered by the storms of many mistakes.

Yet I know my God to be sovereign and good, and His ways to be higher than ours.
He speaks to us in whispers barely discernable through the noise and bustle of this world.
I find it fascinating how God chooses to use the simplest little things to teach us lofty, eternal truth otherwise incomprehensible to our finite minds.
While Jesus was walking this earth he spoke about mustard seeds, farming, and fishing to explain spiritual truths more effectively than all the brilliant scholars could ever dream to.

My vow to you is for the rest of my days on this Earth become a simple illustration of something much bigger than me; an imperfect illustration of my Father's perfect love for His people.
I vow to seek Jesus first, and as His perfect love fills and overflows my heart, pour that sweet unconditional love out to you.
I will remind myself daily that this life and this marriage is not about me, and be willing to die for you, our future family, or whoever else God may ask me to at any moment.
I will seek to consider others above myself, and you alone above all men.

It would take me many more pages of writing and hours of speaking to properly share the weight of the commitment I'm making to you today, so out of respect for our guests I will conclude with this:

"It will be my great honor to take your hand today, and walk with you the rest of my days, stride for stride, hand in hand. Though the gates of Hell will rise against us, we will find our way together, to the Kingdom of God."

Tags: love, marriage