(Last night I had the wondrous privilege of watching Mark marry his baby sister and new brother-in-law.  The whole experience was too beautiful for words.  Trying to replay it was impossible.  So I hope this helps to capture it a bit…)

Love.

In all its wondrous forms and flavors.

Delicate in tenderness and fierce in passion.

A mother’s tears staining her cheeks, drops of love leaking shamelessly from a full and thankful heart.

A father’s throat embedded with the lump of deep emotion when he sees the way his daughter looks at her new groom.

A child’s smile that runs from ear to ear with the knowledge that his mama has never been happier.

A brother’s cracking voice as he joins this woman, his baby sister, with this man, as husband and wife.

Love.

In all its wondrous forms and flavors.

All in one room, floating in and out of conversations.  Bursting, beautiful and free, among laughter and tears.  Squeezing out of every hug and evident in every picture taken.

Vows taken.  Promises made.  Futures being dreamed about.  A man and woman becoming one.  A family doubling in size and in love.

And one sitting and taking it all in.  Overcome with emotions too deep to even explain.  Experiencing love at every level in one small venue.  History melting into the glory of the future.  Childhood memories dancing with all that is to come.  Past and present shaking hands with the knowledge that one could not have happened without the other.

One who, for a brief moment, experienced the tears in a mother’s, a brother’s, a child’s, a bride’s eyes and felt each drop as if it were her own.  Love so immense, so diverse, and, in every instance, so real.

Love.

In all its wondrous forms and flavors.

Every iota of it from the heart of God Himself, the source, the very definition of love, leaving no mystery as to where its inexplicable beauty was derived…

I John 4:8 – Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:10 – This is real love–not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

1 John 4:19 – We love because he first loved us.