At a wedding I attended, the bride’s grandfather quoted from memory a moving selection of Scripture about the relationship of husband and wife. Then a friend of the couple read “Sonnet 116” by William Shakespeare. The minister conducting the ceremony used a phrase from that sonnet to illustrate the kind of love that should characterize a Christian marriage: “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.” The poet is saying that true love does not change with circumstances.

The minister noted the many changes this couple would experience during their life together, including health and the inevitable effects of age. Then he challenged them to cultivate the true biblical love that neither falters nor fails in spite of the alterations that would surely come their way.

As I witnessed the joy and excitement of this young couple, a verse came to mind from James: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (1:17). God never changes, and neither does His love for us. We are recipients of a perfect love from our heavenly Father, who has loved us “with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3).

We are called to accept His unfailing love, to allow it to shape our lives, and to extend it to others.  — David C. McCasland