A $100 Marriage License

One of my employees is getting married. For the past year, this great event has been being planned. We are all interested in every detail. As the day approaches, the final tasks are checked off the list; one of those the final tasks, the marriage license. Those of us who remember the blood test many years ago were surprised that it is no longer a requirement. What surprised our young bride-to-be was the $100 fee attached.

“I think it should cost $10,000 to get married and $100 to get divorced,” I commented, “Maybe it would be taken a little more serious. So did you get it?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“You know it’s just a piece of paper, it’s a contract. That piece of paper a marriage does not make,” I said. An image of that marriage contract flashed in front of me. “Hmmm,” I said softly, “there’s a group of people out there who are fighting for the right to pay $100 to get that contract. Seems crazy that they can’t.”

How did that piece of paper become the definition of marriage? I’ve yet to find the verse in the bible that says, “Thou shall obtain a U.S. Certified Marriage License (fee required) in order to be joined in the sight of God.” If that’s the case, holy crap, what did the world do before the U.S. was established? Have there only been holy unions for the past 250 years? Is this what they meant when they pinned “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect union…”? Geeze, all this time I thought it meant a government.

To my friends who would gladly pay $10,000 for that piece of paper, I trust that someday you will be given the same rights. And when that happens, I’ll give you the same advice, “That piece of paper a marriage does not make. Becoming one takes two people committed to doing just that, becoming one.” That happens with and without a license.

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