No Ordinary Wedding

I have these two friends, Danon and Barbara, who just recently came to Christ. They’re in their forties and have been together for 25 years. They have eight kids. But, as of last week, they weren’t married. 

On Saturday, they decided to make that right.

My small group got to help with the wedding. Susan made the cake (gorgeous AND delicious!). Patrick took pictures (He’s an actual professional) aided by his keen-eyed wife Karen. Samantha made beautiful bouquets. John ran the sound both. Joey manned a computer for Skyping in Barbara’s mom (he carried her four-inch-high head for the entire ceremony and reception). Justin performed the wedding. 

When Danon repeated his vows, every person in the room sighed audibly. Barbara’s tears, wide streams of joy running down her cheeks, found company as every one us cried with her. 

This was no ordinary wedding. 

But what wedding is? 

They’re all beautiful. All monumental and epic, previews of that glorious last (and first) day when Jesus comes for His bride. 

I talked to Barbara a few days before the wedding and she was visibly shaken with nerves and fear. I didn’t understand it, why she would be nervous now having been with Danon for so long, but listening to her, I realized how different this would be. She’d be sealing the emergency exit door, a door she’d taken great comfort in, a door she’d occasionally used. 

I remembered at Barbara’s wedding, so intimate and simple, what a big deal it is to commit your life to another human being, how scary it must be, what faith it must take. 

It’s one thing to get married at nineteen like I did, before you know any better. But to get married after 25 rocky years, knowing how hard it will be to stay true, knowing how uncertain life can be, that takes guts. And commitment. And a great deal of assurance that God’s plan is best.