Wedding in Montana

My sister and I made the 9 hour drive from Portland to Missoula yesterday.  We had a good time and some good laughs.  We stopped at a gas station/restaurant/truck repair shop (that should tell you everything you need to know about it) in Umatilla, Oregon.  They had doughnuts on steroids for sale.  Literally, the maple bar was almost a foot long.  We saw a billboard that said, "When life sucks...there's hope."  It then gave an 800 number to call.  I thought: If I lived in Umatilla, I'd want an 800 number to call when life sucked.  Too funny.

The purpose of this trip was to officiate my cousin's wedding on their family ranch in Stevensville, MT.  Joe (my cousin) and Carrie did great and the ceremony went well.  The sound guys turned my microphone off with the music at the beginning of the ceremony causing an annoying pause and one of them to come to the mic to get it going.  I told the sound guys before the service that they would either be my best friends or my worst enemies.  It turned out to be the latter.  I also dropped Carrie's ring when the best man handed them to me.  There's always something that goes wrong in a wedding.  Those are the things that you remember.  Here are some pictures from the ceremony and reception.  Notice the natural backdrop that no church building could ever come close to matching.

The arch is where we stood during the ceremony.  When I look at this picture, I think...postcard.

My sister Casey (on the right) and my cousin Molly.

A great picture my sister took after Carrie and her dad passed her as they walked down the aisle.

It was a great privilege for me to officiate the wedding.

Weddings are a great celebration.  As I prepared for the ceremony, I was reminded of how marriage pictures Christ's relationship with the church (Ephesians 5).  I believe that if both parties in Christian marriages just kept that fact in mind, there would be a lot less problems in those relationships.

I was also reminded that marriage was the first institution God gave to man (Genesis 2).  Marriage came before the home (the union of a man and a woman is the foundation of the home), government, nations and even the local church.  Obviously, God holds marriage in high regard.  Too bad our culture doesn't really do the same.  Satan knows that when he destroys marriage, he destroys the societal example of Christ's relationship with the church.  It's another victory for him.  He loves anything that keeps people from seeing Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Pray for Joe and Carrie as they start their new life together.