My Daughter Just Got Married
My Daughter Just Got Married
I’ve known it was coming for the last 9 months or so, but nothing could have prepared me for the feelings, the memories, and the emotions that pulsed through my soul on July 31, 2026.
My daughter got married.
I knew it would be emotional, but it was everything I anticipated at a 10-factor. To any dad of little girls out there, batten down the tear-ducts (and your bank account).
When those doors fling open and you see everyone stand up and turn around to honor the incoming bride—your baby girl—you will cry harder than you ever have before (including that time Andrew Luck retired at halftime of a Colt’s preseason game).
I am tearing up at my desk right now just reminiscing about it.
The Wedding Behind the Wedding
My daughter and son-in-law (still need practice typing and saying that) wanted their wedding to preach the Gospel. It’s one of the things I admire most about them and their new marriage. They want everything to be centered on Jesus and to point others to Jesus.
How can a wedding preach the Gospel?
The Gospel is not just religious advice, a list of rules we follow to live a nice life or have a decent marriage. The Gospel is the announcement of news. It’s good news!
- God spoke His Creation into being out of His limitless love so He could be with us.
- Sin broke that designed connection between us and our Maker and distorted all of Creation
- But God didn’t leave us where we were. He didn’t look across the divide our sin created and say, “hey you, climb back up here!” Nope. Christ came for us!
- And here’s the kicker: One day He will return again to make all things new.
The Gospel is really the story of a loving God pursuing His lost and beloved creation. And that Great Story actually ends…with a wedding feast.
In Revelation 19, we see the Wedding Supper of the Lamb—a great feast (I like to imagine it will be TexMex with unlimited chips and salsa) celebrating the final chapter of God’s epic storyline.
So every time we attend a wedding, we get a little foreshadowing—a foretaste of the great reunion with God that has already begun and is still yet to come.
This is our hope! And here at The Stone Table, we want you to know God made you, God loves you, and God is pursuing you. And in Christ, all things are being put back together again.
Go Ahead and Cry a Little
So yes, I cried when I saw my daughter in her wedding dress for the first time, when I walked her down the aisle, when I danced with her for the first time (and definitely when I got that last credit card bill). But maybe there was something bigger happening in that giant mess of emotions, too.
Maybe every wedding awakens something deep inside us. A longing for the day when the Bridegroom comes again, and everything broken is made new.
Erik Cooper
Erik began his career in the business world before spending twelve years in full-time ministry, serving on staff at a large suburban church and later as a church planter in downtown Indianapolis. Today, he serves as the President of a family of business-oriented nonprofit organizations that work together to mobilize the marketplace to make Jesus known in the world. He leads The Stone Table, which equips marketplace believers and invests in global mission initiatives, and Community Reinvestment Foundation, a nonprofit real estate company providing high-quality affordable housing in Indiana and directing its profits to missions through The Stone Table.
