Dan and Kristin's Wedding

Ani Ledodi Vedodi Li

(Song of Solomon 6:3a)

“I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine...”

Ani (I)

Kristin and Dan, this is your big day. Mom and I love you both, and so do all your Baldauff and Magee family and friends who are with you here today.

This verse from Song of Solomon is inscribed on your rings. You start out the verse Kristin on your ring “I am my beloved's...” and Dan, you finish with “and my beloved is mine” but all of it is actually spoken by the woman. The “I” is the bride. She has a confidence in this relationship, an assurance, that cannot be easily taken away.

How do you get to that point? It requires a mutual consent, a deep friendship, a man that is willing to say I give my life for yours, and a woman who is able to believe that, to receive it, to say it, and then to give it back again together with her own life, now united with him as one body together.

Le- (for)

“I for my beloved.” Kristin, you are saying to the world today in the presence of the God who loves you and before these covenant witness who want the very best for you, “I for...” You are for someone beyond yourself. You are for Dan in a way that you are for no one else.

dodi (my beloved)

You call him in this verse “my beloved” or simply “my love.” The word can also mean friend. That fits. Dan is your one friend. You have other friends. Some of them are here as your witnesses today. But you are saying that this man is in the special place of the only one.

To be a friend is a root relationship. To recognize that another person exists and that you can give of yourself for the the good of that other person, this is friendship. Kristin, here is your friend, here is your husband, here is your love.

Ve- (and)

And Dan,

dodi (my beloved)

you are Kristin's love. You are choosing to lay down your life for her. It is a wonderful gift to lay down your life for someone every day as their only one. It brings life to the woman of your dreams. When you do that, you say to your wife, I am for you. My life for yours. From this day forward, that's you, Dan the beloved who lays down his life for his bride. What a privilege. Every day.

Li (for me)

And Kristin, you have the privilege of receiving that love, joining in it, and giving it back again to Dan.

This is what your marriage is all about. This is what life is all about. This is what Jesus is all about. Lean on Him. He knows how to be a friend who gives His all for the woman of His dreams. He knows how to love us when we are unlovely. He knows how to give us life. He knows how to forgive us.

“I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine.” By the Holy Spirit within you, live this out. Be one.