Author: A Little Faith Lift…Finding Joy Beyond Rejection
www.alittlefaithlift.com
AWSA (Advanced Writers & Speakers Assoc.)
Recently, my granddaughter Britney was married to Gage, a young man she met when visiting Fort Scott last year. Britney is from the Las Vegas area but has been finishing up her paramedic credentials in Utah. The wedding was held at my son and his wife’s ranch. Britney had three flower girls and Gage had three ring bearer attendants, each gender with two two-year-olds and one four-year-old. You get where I’m going.
The guests were to sit on stained boards that rested atop hay bales, bales that would be delivered the morning of the wedding. For spacing purposes, the boards were placed on the ground. To the rug-rats, these boards were perfect gymnastics balance beans for jumping over. Or on. Or around.
We all watched, astonished, as they giggled, chased each other down the aisle, attempted to vault over the wooden boards and tackled each other. Things weren’t much better for the “let’s try that again” attempt…you know, after each parent—most in the bridal party– took their child aside and bribed them with everything but a live pony.
We expected the worst. Preparations for this wedding had taken months. Both sets of parents and family members had worked to make everything perfect, and Britney’s mother had spent most of September in Fort Scott, away from her family, to work with Gage’s parents on the smallest of details. And now, six little ones were going to cause havoc.
On the wedding day, these kiddies, now dressed alike with hair slicked or curled, shocked us all when they walked slowly down the aisle in single file, taking their “jobs” seriously. Flower petals were methodically dropped to the ground, and this time, the chief ring bearer actually handed off the case with the wedding rings in it instead of practicing his quarterback pass with it. No one escaped and ran towards the pond, and they even sat quietly with their assigned adult during the ceremony. Surely they were A.I. imposters, switched out for some well-behaved youngsters.
Both the wedding and the reception were lovely, months of planning paying off. The Bible uses a metaphor of a wedding in which our time of “planning” for it also will pay off. In Ephesians 5, we read that Jesus Christ has sacrificially chosen the church to be his bride, and just as in Bible times there was a betrothal period in which the bride and groom were separated until the wedding, so it is with us and Christ. We faithfully wait with great anticipation for his return when we will be united with him. Sometimes we act foolishly, immaturely, selfishly, childishly. Other times, we face the importance of what we are doing and take our future wedding seriously.
The “details” of our waiting makes a difference. Should we fail to take our decision to allow Christ in our lives with the seriousness it deserves and continue to act in whatever way we choose, there will be no wedding. We must ask ourselves what matters most and behave accordingly because at that point, not even a pony will be enough.