BY PASTOR MARK HOPPER

Pastor Mark Hopper

Someone told me recently that September has become the new big month for weddings. Traditionally we think of June weddings, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

From late August to the end of September, my wife and I attended four different weddings.

There was a wedding every week!

We enjoy attending weddings and sometimes I am asked to officiate.  Certainly each wedding is a special moment in the life of the families and couple involved.

One interesting pattern with all four of the weddings was that each one was held outdoors. Some were in lush garden settings, while others were in more remote, secluded settings.

I’m not sure what has happened to the traditional church wedding, but I have noticed that it is a growing trend to have weddings outdoors or in less traditional settings.

A number of different weddings are recorded in the Bible.  One of the most famous is the wedding that Jesus attended with His disciples in Cana of Galilee, found in the book of John, Chapter 2.

Another wedding is recorded in Genesis, Chapter 29.  In this passage, Jacob is tricked by his father-in-law and ends up with the wrong wife.  Jacob wanted to marry Rachel, but the father-in-law gave Jacob the veiled sister, Leah, instead!

Marriage is a special, God-given relationship.  In Genesis, Chapter 2, we read, “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”.

We’ll talk more about the “leaving and cleaving” in my next article.  But let me express my congratulations to the families and couples that got married during the past month.  It looks like you are in good company since September has become the new month to get married.

Pastor Mark Hopper is from the Evangelical Free Church of Diamond Bar, 3255 South Diamond Bar Ave. Sunday services are 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. For more information, call (909) 594-7604 or visit http://www.efreedb.org.