The best is yet to come

This weekend one of my good mates got married. It was the most incredible wedding I’ve ever been to – God was everywhere. During the service, while sitting in the broken shade of a willow tree under the warm African sun, I got the most incredible sense of God’s power in the place. Everything just felt so right; it felt like this is how things were meant to be. This is what He intended marriage to be when He created it: the union of two of His children, deeply in love with Him firstly and then in love with one another; making a commitment to walk, together, with Him, for eternity. It is really hard to imagine that anything between two people can be more perfect than a marriage centred on Christ. There was something unexplainable about the love and raw Godly power that permeated through the place – God was pleased, I have no doubt.

But besides that I want to share with you what the pastor spoke about – that the best is yet to come.
Have you ever wondered why a relationship to which you've committed doesn’t have the same kind of future excitement as the memories of the past?
Or do you dream about past experiences and people, wishing for it because you will never have that again?
Do you worry about getting older, looking in the mirror wishing for your youth?

He told the story of Jesus at the wedding.
In short: The wine at the wedding runs out, Jesus is asked to help a brother out, so He tells them to fill some jars with water and He turns the water to wine. Easy as pie.
A servant takes a glass of the wine to the master of the banquet who, heartily impressed, says to the bridegroom, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (John 2:10)
The most awesome thing about this is that the best is still to come when we are walking with Jesus. If things are bad, they can only get better and if things are good, then they can also only get better.
Paul confirms this when he writes, “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (2 Cor 4:16)
Bottom line: as earthly humans we are wasting away. We are fading flowers, there is nothing we can do to stop our aging or that our heyday on earth comes and goes before we know it. But if what we care about most is our relationship with Christ, then the fading of our minds and bodies is nothing in comparison with the renewal that takes place inside our hearts and spirit, every day, through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the best part of it is that we are going forward…toward the best times of our lives…always…when we place Jesus number one.

Every now and then you hear a couple who has been married for 40 or 50 years and when asked how they did it, they say that they love their spouse more today than they did 40 or 50 years ago. I never could quite understand that, how can you love this person more – all old and wrinkled and unable to do cool stuff – than the person he/she was when they were young.
But now it all makes sense; love is something that grows over time, it’s something that is inside. And Jesus fills us with the ability to love. As we walk with Him, we are renewed daily – it's like every day the old skin is peeled off to reveal a new fresh skin below – more able and stronger to love and enjoy the good times ahead.

Be blessed, make music, live with passion
NS