The Garden Wedding

This is part of a homily given at a recent wedding.

Why Weddings and Marriages?  

Because God establish both in the very first week of the earth’s existence!

On day six of the seven day week established by God at creation; He performed a wedding and made a marriage and established a family and only then He declared all He had done as “Very Good.” 

In Genesis 2:7, God formed up some of the soil that He had earlier made into the body of a man and breathed life into His clay model and the man stood up alive and perfect – the first human. 

Then God created an acreage for the man to manage.  It was a splendid piece of property with a stream with trout jumping and a pond with swans floating.  It had spectacular horses any of which could shatter the Kentucky Derby one-and-a-quarter mile time – any of which could easily take the triple crown or with ease win any barrel race. It had Denver Stock Show champion cattle, goats and sheep and chickens and ducks and a three Australian blue heelers all of which were enamored with man and friendly.  The acreage was on a small hill giving a splendid view of the lands nearby. It was almost perfect! 

Or – God created a garden for the man – it was amazing!  You know about Augusta National where the Masters Championship is played every April and have seen hole #12 with its famous stone bridge.  What a beautiful spot on earth it is, but it is a weedy mess in comparison to the garden where God put that first man.  The flowers and foliage in the garden of God’s creation had the richest of colors.  The property was exquisite with beautiful low hanging fruit everywhere.  The birds and butterflies were gorgeous and there were NO weeds – NONE!  It was a WOW!  Almost perfect!

Or – God created a park. Maybe something like the safari park in Ashland except with no fences.  There were 400 class bull elk, 200 class deer, caribou and muskox all around and you could walk right up to them.  There were also wolverines, bears and lions – all friendly.  And there were dinosaurs – long necks and T-Rex.  No, it was not Jurassic Park with genetically altered dinosaurs afoul, but the park where man was placed had what we call dinosaurs, along with all types of animals known to man.  There God told the man that he was in charge of them all and was told to name them all.  What a park!  Again, almost perfect!

What I have been describing is the Garden of Eden created by God and told about in Genesis 2. [Yes, it was there that ALL the animals were created which would have included T-Rex.  Yes, T-Rex was in the garden and was a happy camper.]  It was an amazing place – BUT not perfect yet.

God declared that it was not good for man to be alone (2:18) so He created a helpmate (Eve) from a rib taken from Adam and walked her to the man through a crowd of watching friends – the animals – where (like most wedding entrances today) words were uttered, “Bone of my bone! She will be called woman as from man she took his name,” and God gave them this charge: A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh, Gen. 2:24.   It was the setting for the first wedding making the first marriage and the first family (God said – they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed, Gen. 2:25).

The acreage (garden or park) was only VERY GOOD after God had made a woman, officiated at a wedding and created the family unit.  Still today the family is a critical core to the well-being of a society and it begins with a marriage where God makes two to be one. A miracle.  The only time when one plus one equals one!  

Man was completed by her and then all was VERY GOOD!