Greetings Friends,
Here is a piece of this morning’s journal entry…
This being the week of our daughter Linzee’s wedding, I’ve got marriage on my mind. You hear people say they always cry at weddings. Why? What is that about? Do we cry because were so happy for the bride and groom? Yes! That’s certainly a big part of it. But is there more? I asked Renee and she said, “It’s because of the wonder and beauty of love itself. It’s because of the way a wedding acknowledges the passage of time from one generation to the next.” Maybe we cry because just the thought of uniting of two lives into one with such permanence is something that inspires us. It moves us to tears. Maybe it’s because a wedding is a celebration of life itself…all life…and all that is good in it.
Maybe we shed some tears because those of us who are married are reminded of our own wedding day…its joy, its hope, its meaning, its moment. Maybe we do so because in experiencing someone else’s wedding, overflowing with hopes and dreams, we are reminded, and maybe convicted, of all the times we’ve let our marriage and our partner down. Reminded of how far we’ve fallen from the love we felt that day. Reminded that, at times, we’ve failed. We’ve not always been true to our partner, to God—or even ourselves. In the days that have ensued since our big day, we’ve forgotten the vows we so valiantly spoke to each other…much less forgotten to live them.
Maybe those of us who aren’t married shed some tears because we are longing for this day to arrive in our own lives. We yearn for the depth of love, the depth of intimacy, of sharing and caring and companionship that a wedding represents. We want to be loved by someone that deeply, that wonder-fully…with such loyalty, such dedication and maybe most of all, with such abandon.
Maybe we aren’t feeling any of these feelings at all. Maybe we cry at weddings because they are like a beacon of light shining into the midst of lives that often seem dark and dreary…a wedge of joy thrust down into the plethora of other not-so-happy emotions we experience in the course of our days. They give us permission to believe again…in love, in life, in ourselves, in others. They call forth the very finest and best from our souls. They represent life at its fullest, its richest and deepest. They invite and challenge us to believe again…to live for all that is good and right and worthy.
So why do we cry at weddings? Maybe it’s all of the above.
So glad we’re together–In Christ,
Pastor Jerry
