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Those whom God has joined together… do not put asunder
This is the twelfth in a series on marriage, love, and God.
To continue to unpack what the service of marriage says about it, God has put these two people together from the beginning and will be with them in their future, their separation by death, and their reuniting in Larger Life. In the blessing of the couple that concludes the specific rite of marriage, both versions have a prayer that when both will have died, they find each other at the heavenly banquet depicted in the Gospel of Matthew (for instance, 8: 11).
I am especially fond of the first blessing in the Prayer Book rite of marriage:
Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love in sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life. We thank you, also, for consecrating the union of man and woman [two people] in his Name. By the power of your Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of your blessing upon this man and this woman [N. and N.]. Defend them from every enemy. Lead them into all peace. Let their love for each other be a seal upon their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon their foreheads. Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in their life and…
