The Joy and the Ache

I woke up today with an ache in my soul. I am not unhappy; quite the contrary. There is forward movement in my walk with Christ. Everything is well with my life. What is this ache? Why is it there?

Sunday there was great joy. I officiated the wedding of Bo and DaLin Broadwater. While waiting to walk out before the congregation, I prayed that God would fill our hearts with great joy. He came through. Part of my prayer during the ceremony was that Bo and DaLin would represent well the picture of Christ and the Church that marriage is meant to be. They came through. Their love for one another was as thick in the air as the humidity outside. We all left with drops of it on our brow.

But sometimes after the joy there is an ache. The ache is there to remind us that as sweet as the gifts of these moments are, they are but foretastes of the joy to come. There is a wedding feast coming where the wine will never run dry, where love will ring out in our laughter and life will swell in our lungs. There will never be a purer Bride, and there will never be a more radiant Groom. And the sun will never set on that Day.

That Day is not today. For now, we have joy because of these pictures, and we ache because of these pictures. We are right to do both.