I cry at weddings. For a tangle of reasons. Do you?

It’s June: wedding month. If you’re like me, the tears during the ceremony are a mix of joy for them, sorrow for loves lost and roads not taken, and the overwhelming feeling that these kids have NO IDEA what they’re stepping into. For the rest of their lives. I want to tell them how hard it will be, no matter how much they love each other now. But I also don’t want them to know, or maybe they wouldn’t take the plunge.

Then the receptions! Parents, friends, family take the mic and say sweet and embarrassing things, wishing the best to the happy couple, and the glasses are raised “To the bride and groom!” And that wrecks me.

Look around this room: How many stories behind those raised glasses? How many histories, broken hearts, unrealized dreams? The ache I feel at weddings comes from somewhere real. It comes from disappointment. Love is supposed to be for everyone, forever. All hurting humans long to be somebody’s person. Some of them are; some of them aren’t; all of us hurt. We all share one thing. We’re all longing.

I look around the reception hall and see the entire human race longing for love and smiling for the sweetness of just this moment. Whether they know it or not, they’re raising their glasses to something bigger than this couple’s big day: they’re raising their glasses to the central reality of our human story - to The Bride and Groom! We are the bride—the longed-for, the cherished, the known. Jesus is the groom—the pursuer, the loyal, the trustworthy.

And I weep for lost loves - and so does He. When he betrothed me to himself, he knew exactly what he was in for. He knew the pain that was coming. He knows my wandering heart, my faithless moments. But he will be the groom. He will always be the groom. My groom. And yours.

This June, raise your glass after those sweet, embarrassing toasts! Jesus is beside you, raising his glass as well! Toast this moment of fragile human joy, and know for yourself that you are toasting The Bride and Groom - the permanent love for which all the hearts around you are in longing.

The best wedding is coming soon. And it is for you, forever.

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