San Diego Wedding
Dear Gentle Reader,
The 50-something bride looked radiant as she spoke forth her vows to her groom. He looked at her tenderly, as though he'd discovered a precious treasure. Their family, assembled together from as far north as Monterrey and as far east as Virginia, rejoiced in the remarriage of their mother and father/ grandmother and grandfather. The small congregation looked on with smiling faces as they observed a miracle of reconciliation.
The couple's family is a model of diversity. Their two Anglo daughters married two Chinese brothers. One of those daughters was just in her early twenties when she adopted a Mexican orphan, who now has a child of her own. One son-in-law is in the Navy, another is a private contractor in Kuwait, repairing American helicopters.
It's been a long road toward this wonderful evening, and the road was strewn with hardship, alienation, and despair. They've known homelessness and alcoholism but now face a future with the maturity to overcome past patterns of dysfunction and consciously work on new ways to relate to one another. Both the bride and the groom say they are different people now, with different values and responses than before. They've learned to forgive each other for past hurts and look to the future.
Their experience reminds me of the Apostle Paul's definition of love in the New Testament as presented in The Message: Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies.
Amen.
The 50-something bride looked radiant as she spoke forth her vows to her groom. He looked at her tenderly, as though he'd discovered a precious treasure. Their family, assembled together from as far north as Monterrey and as far east as Virginia, rejoiced in the remarriage of their mother and father/ grandmother and grandfather. The small congregation looked on with smiling faces as they observed a miracle of reconciliation.
The couple's family is a model of diversity. Their two Anglo daughters married two Chinese brothers. One of those daughters was just in her early twenties when she adopted a Mexican orphan, who now has a child of her own. One son-in-law is in the Navy, another is a private contractor in Kuwait, repairing American helicopters.
It's been a long road toward this wonderful evening, and the road was strewn with hardship, alienation, and despair. They've known homelessness and alcoholism but now face a future with the maturity to overcome past patterns of dysfunction and consciously work on new ways to relate to one another. Both the bride and the groom say they are different people now, with different values and responses than before. They've learned to forgive each other for past hurts and look to the future.
Their experience reminds me of the Apostle Paul's definition of love in the New Testament as presented in The Message: Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. Love never dies.
Amen.
posted by Patty G. | 10:21 PM
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