THE INVITATION

When my wife and I were married, we were not rich in wealth; but we were rich in Spirit. After following the Lord for a few months, it was placed upon our hearts to get right before God and men; prior to that we were living in what some would consider sin; not a good testimony. We had been living together since around Marianne's 18th birthday; she had to move out of her home due to being about 4 months pregnant, and besides, she wanted to move in with me; although at the time we planned to move in together I had no place to call my own, in fact I was sleeping on a friends floor. Anyhow; when we made the decision to get married, we were attending Calvary Chapel of Downey. Our first meeting to ask to be married was a bit scary; three pastors sat us down and drilled us on the step we were taking; Pastor Jeff Johnson, Pastor Jack Abilene and Pastor Mike Aguilar, (forgive me if I misspelled any of those names). As they counseled us for what seemed to be hours, they kept questioning us on whether or not we understood marriage; and then the biggy, 6 months of premarital counseling, and the topper, no sex; in fact at one time, one of them, (I think Jack) had suggested we separate until the wedding; thankfully Jeff stepped up and said that would be a bit much; besides we already had our son, who at that time was over 2 years old. So we set the date for 6 months away and began planning the wedding; and counseling, reading books, listening to tapes and many other things, some which seemed strange at the time. As I said in the beginning, we did not have much money, and neither did our parents, but we were rich in the Spirit and loved Jesus. One of the things I had asked for was for there to be an alter call during the wedding, which was not usually done apparently, the response from the pastors seemed quizzical; but it was agreed upon. During one of our counseling sessions towards the big day, we began planning the actual ceremony. All the staff at Calvary was such a blessing; Pastor Mike, (who was the youth pastor at the time) would marry us; Dan Marks came into the room with his wife beside him and offered to do the music, and his wife said she would choreograph the wedding. We were blessed, to say the least. I went home after that meeting and began to prepare the invitations; yes, I made the invitations. I remember praying with my wife about what we wanted to say, or rather declare in this special invitation. We had looked at some which are ordered, but none said what we wanted to express. The message was clear, we wanted this to not just be a day about us, but we wanted it to be about Jesus. On the inside left of the invitation I typed the following things: at the top of the page was Matthew 19:5&6, followed by Ephesians 5:22-28, and then the following prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father; we pray that you bless this union as we come together with you Lord, making you the center of our lives, putting you first in all that we do. Sanctify our marriage Lord, and make us to be a blessing unto you and a testimony of your love; that those that know us may see your light shine in and through us, that they too may know your wonderful saving grace and your endless glory. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Amen (I done!)