Tied in a Threefold Knot

A gift from Ani and Daniel

Ani and Daniel are married and I had the great honor of being their officiant. I took it on as more than a simple honor and looked at it as a task that I was called on by the Holy Spirit to complete. I consulted with my friend Webster and found his definition a bit much for my simple pedigree; “one (as a priest) that officiates at a religious rite”. However, with the Easter message fresh on our minds I think that the power of His resurrection and the grace that Jesus affords us, that for a few hours, the definition had some merit in this instance.

The numeral three plays a big role throughout the Bible; three crosses, three days from cross to resurrection, the Holy Trinity, and many more. I fooled around with several terms for the title of this post – trifecta, triple, triad, threefold… Daniel is the third of our three children to get married and increasing our family many times over with the new families all tied together. The blessings are heaped up well beyond threefold and I cannot really do justice to the abundance of joy our kids bring us.

I led off my thoughts on love and marriage for Ani and Daniel with Ecclesiastes 4: 9 – 12; “⁹Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; ¹⁰if one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! ¹¹Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? ¹²Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” I followed the scripture with these words for them, “I believe that you have found this to be true for the two of you and that is what brings us to this place; to see you wound together with God’s blessing as husband and wife – a three stranded cord.”

The short message was seasoned with several scriptures; what better way to see a couple married than using a liberal dose of God’s word? After some personal observations and notes for each of them I focused on improving our love by practice and action and ending the thought with Philippians 1:9, “⁹And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.”

I believe this to be true for the both of them toward each other; Ani to Daniel and Daniel to Ani – “⁴I have found the one that my soul loves.” Song of Songs 3:4.

We ended the message with a charge to the couple and the rest of the celebrants as well that I pulled from Colossians and I’ll end this post with the charge to all of us as well:

Colossians 3: 12 – 15a, “¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ^15aLet the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”

Amen