Someone very special had a birthday this week! For today’s background photo you can see the birthday gift I selected for this very special person. This is my very favorite brand of candles, sold in a specialty boutique shop just down the hill from my home. I have often purchased candles such as this one for the loved ones in my life. (And I have also been known to purchase said candles for myself as well! Ha!)
What made this gift extra special is that the precious person whom it is for will be joining my family this weekend! We’re having a wedding tomorrow! In our backyard! I’m getting a brand-new daughter-in-law!
I’m very excited about this!
So, in honor of the very special marriage happening tomorrow, I would like to share some thoughts about how Marriage is … like a candle.
Marriage is … like this candle.
* This birthday-gift candle has 3 wicks. When a couple who loves and follows Jesus Christ join together in marriage, their marriage actually has three participants: the groom, the bride, and Jesus Christ Himself!
* In the Bible, “oil” is often used as a reference to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the “oil” which fuels the candle of our life, so that the light of Jesus Christ can shine brightly!
In marriage, the Holy Spirit is the “oil”/soybean wax which fuels the marriage so that the light of Jesus Christ can shine brightly! The soybean wax is a fuel which burns cleanly and doesn’t cause a lot of sooty smoke. Likewise, as the Holy Spirit fuels the marriage the beautiful “candle of marriage” burns cleanly without a lot of sooty smoke.
* Additionally, this birthday-gift candle has the most fabulous aroma ever! Even without being lit, the scent is heavenly! In the same way, as the Holy Spirit fuels the marriage, the marriage in turn produces a fabulous heavenly aroma. Just being near the “candle of marriage” you can’t help but smell the wonderful scent of the Holy Spirit’s aroma.
Many years ago, when my kids were very little, the popular TV series Myth Busters decided to test a myth about candles. The myth in question was from the opening scene of the first Shrek movie … when Shrek sat down to have his dinner and pulled a piece of wax from his ear, set it on the table as a candle, and lit it for a candlelight dinner.
This scene piqued everyone’s curiosity. Is it possible to make a real candle which actually burns from human ear wax??
The Myth Busters team proceeded to collect ear wax from hundreds of people … enough wax to actually form into a candle.
Would it burn?? If so, how well would it burn??
As it turned out, it was a very disgusting experiment. The earwax which formed the candle was full of disgusting “ick” to start with. And when they tried to light it, it struggled to hold the flame. It did burn … but barely. And, it smelled terrible! Absolutely horrible.
This right here is an example of what marriage is like if the couple does not have the Holy Spirit fueling their marriage.
If a couple attempts to make their marriage work simply by their own efforts, it is like trying to make a candle the Myth Busters way. Every one of us is a sinner by nature, therefore we will naturally do sinful things which will bring “ick” into the marriage.
We will say hurtful things. We will do hurtful things. We will respond in hurtful ways.
All that hurt and sin which we bring into the marriage is just like all the “ick” collected in the earwax to make the ear-wax candle. There’s just a lot of “ick.” It’s disgusting. And when you try to light that disgusting mess of earwax as a candle, it stinks!
It smells really really bad!
And the bad smell permeates everything! Nobody wants to be around that bad smell. This is what it is like when a couple tries to have a marriage apart from the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
Marriage is … like a candle!
Through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit the “candle of marriage” can burn absolutely beautifully! Not saying there won’t be bumps and “learning curves” along the way. But the fuel of the Holy Spirit will have purity to it, so that it burns cleanly … without soot-ing everything up!
Through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit the “candle of marriage” can be infused with the most fabulous scent ever! Just like I have gone back again and again to purchase this particular brand of candle for my loved ones, so also when a marriage has the fragrance of heaven, it will be something which others not only want to be around but want to learn from as well.
A marriage with the aroma of heaven will be one which can nurture and mentor other marriages. It will be one which will nurture and mentor future legacies. It will be one which will draw people to Jesus Christ!
My prayer for the happy couple this weekend is that their marriage will be like this candle! I pray that the light of Jesus Christ will shine brightly through their marriage! I pray that the Holy Spirit will give their marriage the fragrance of heaven!
And I pray that through the beauty of their “candle of marriage” that many people will be drawn to Jesus!
