I Love... "The Church"

We’re back from Florida and Meleia is now married and as all proud parents say…. “It was a beautiful wedding!” We didn't know how it would go having an ocean-side wedding. The groomsmen wore flip-flops and the bridesmaids were bare-footed (although all were formal from the ankles up). The wedding was very special and the reception on the 8th floor of the Sirata in St. Pete’s Beach, over-looking the ocean, truly was beautiful.

I will admit that it was not easy to plan a wedding in Florida when you’re living in Minnesota. We just didn’t know how things would go. The Groom’s Dinner was in the hands of the groom’s parents but the wedding and reception was ours to plan. Why do I share this with you? Because I want to share with you how we were touched by people who love Christ in Florida and who rolled up their sleeves to help us out in the surroundings that were unfamiliar to us. These were people who were not related to us... they had never met us before, yet we quickly felt as though we had known them for a long, long time because of the bond we had in Christ. These people who love Jesus too, helped with all the details of the wedding and reception. What hit me is that I was thrown into a conscious awareness of how much I love “The Church”. Over the years I have remarked how much “I love our church”… Pine City EFC…. but the love of a believer for a believer regardless of the church you attend has impacted me greatly this week…. The Church… the universal body of believers, the love and the bond that is there in Christ no matter what church you attend or what part of the country you live, should instead, call us to say “I love The Church". Just a couple pictures...

Wedding rehearsal on the beach...

Wedding Day...