Good morning…
After seventeen years of dating and fifteen years of living together, yesterday was the incredibly special night our neighbors wed. We enjoy living across the street from Joe and JoAnn. She and I particularly share a similar zest for life, and we love giving random gifts to one another as the Spirit moves. Earlier in the week I dropped off on their front step a big handful of gifts, most purchased from my favorite store in town, The Front Porch of Vinings. Then yesterday morning, I sent JoAnn the following meditation to kick off her wedding day.
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DAILY MEDITATION | JUNE 3, 2022 – Joys and Sorrows Kiss by Henri Nouwen
When we speak about celebration we tend rather easily to bring to mind happy, pleasant, gay festivities in which we can forget for a while the hardships of life and immerse ourselves in an atmosphere of music, dance, drinks, laughter, and a lot of cozy small talk. But celebration in the Christian sense has very little to do with this. Celebration is only possible through the deep realization that life and death are never found completely separate. Celebration can only really come about where fear and love, joy and sorrow, tears and smiles can exist together. Celebration is the acceptance of life in a constantly increasing awareness of its preciousness. And life is precious not only because it can be seen, touched, and tasted, but also because it will be gone one day. When we celebrate a wedding, we celebrate a union as well as a departure; when we celebrate death we celebrate lost friendship as well as gained liberty. There can be tears after weddings and smiles after funerals. We can indeed make our sorrows, just as much as our joys, a part of our celebration of life in the deep reality that life and death are not opponents but do, in fact, kiss each other at every moment of our existence.
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“I will be bringing you someone whole and you will be bringing me someone whole,” says a portion of the Mari Evans poem I framed as one of their wedding gifts. “…and we will be twice as strong and we will be twice as true and we will have twice as much of love and everything.”
At last night’s amazing wedding reception under God’s great big sky, I took twenty-five photos of the first dance Joe and Jo shared as a newlywed couple. This morning I texted them to her, hoping that she might choose one picture to put in the frame I gave them, a frame which reads, “You are my sun, my moon, and all of the stars.”
“I love this one because we’re looking at each other and I can see God’s beautiful sky,” she said of the first photo below.
“I love this one too because it’s just so fine,” she highlighted this second one. “Thank you so much. You were able to capture how much fun we were having!”
Now my attention turns to a wedding which will take place today in Sea Island, Florida. Reeves and Brant are an amazing couple who have dated since being high school classmates with our oldest son, Kyler. I love both of their parents and have been texting with a few friends who are taking in this magical wedding weekend, a unifying celebration which has been highly anticipated for years. This evening, these 27-year-olds will walk down the wedding aisle to have their two whole selves become mysteriously one with God.
So here is my prayerful hope for this young, talented couple as they dance the night away in Florida with best friends and extended family.
I will be bringing you someone whole
and you will be bringing me someone whole
and we will be twice as strong
and we will be twice as true and
we will have twice as much of love
and everything.
Two are better than one because a good return comes when two work together. If one of them falls, the other can help him up. But who will help the pitiful person who falls down alone? In the same way, if two lie down together, they can keep each other warm. But how will the one who sleeps alone stay warm against the night? And if one person is vulnerable to attack, two can drive the attacker away. As the saying goes, “A rope made of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, VOICE).
It is essential to remember that the third strong strand woven into each wedding is the loving strand of bonding presence gifted by our eternal God.
…Sue…
P.S. A perfect example of this Bible verse is revealed in the P.S. for yesterday’s blog post. If you read yesterday’s morning message early, you missed my father’s fantastic addition to our post My Mom Fell Again. It is well worth touching on the link to experience the precious comments my dad asked me to include. Thanks, dad, for allowing yourself to be woven into such a strong, unbreakable rope with mom and God!
