When someone gets married in the church, prior to the "I do" the couples must first say "I do."
Before they can give their consent to being married they are asked to state their intentions. They cannot get accidentally married, they have to intend it.
There are three statements they are asked prior to their consent:
1)have you come here freely without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage
2)will you love and honor one another as man and wife for the rest of your lives
3) will you accept children lovingly from God and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his church
The statement intentions lay out the program or mission of married life.
The third question or statement comes to mind as I ponder these readings: will you accept children lovingly from God and raise them according to the law of Christ and his church
What does this statement say?
Outside of the obvious of course: will you accept children means are you open to the gift of children...it also suggest that you will be open to children even when your not ready...
It means you will not sterilize your love...
I always tell couples that there is one thing to remember about children: they are always a blessing but never convenient.
Basically the question is asking will you create space for God in your life, will you be open to his will and more importantly, his plan.
Will you follow your agenda or will you walk along the path God has laid before you?
Will you give up your control and learn to be dependent on the other?
Will you give god opportunity to interrupt your life? All things work for Good for those who love God.
This is the one thing constant with God...
If we don't create space for God, he will seek to make his own way into our life...God will interrupt our life. We are no good if we are stagnant.
Isaiah and Peter both discover the reality God's resiliency, God's persistence, God's initiative..
For Isaiah, the "frame of the door shook" and the foundation was shaken...
For Peter, he was overwhelmed by the goodness displayed and the abundance laid at his feet...
In both cases, God breaks into their lives and interrupts their plans.
Both Isaiah and Peter have a break though in their life. They allow God to penetrate their defenses, break down the barrier of their own plans and agenda and they come to a deeper self awareness of their smallness: "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips and yet my eyes have seen the king," and "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
It is being aware of our smallness, our plans and agenda, aware of how often we have refused to makes space for God that humbles us but also opens us up to God.
Once God breaks in and we have our break through we then break out into the newness of life God offers.
There is an emergence for Isaiah and for Peter. They are no longer constrained by their plans or by their understanding. God frees them from their self-restraints, from their self-confinement even their self-imprisonment. God saves us from ourselves, from our plans and invites us to get on board with something greater: "from now on you shall be catching men."
They leave everything, that is, they remove the obstacles that have crowded their lives. They finally create space for God and they journey forth on unchartered territory and their life will never be the same.
They allowed God to interrupt their lives, interrupt their plans, and rather than bulk they joined the ride, they followed him.
They become small, and only when we are small to we begin to understand how large is our God.
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