The Wedding Twist: A going away party.

Weddings are interesting.

I just got back from my cousin's wedding. As I was trying to prepare a speech for the dinner rehearsal I got to thinking about what a wedding was really about. I talked to my sister and she was all, "Weddings are so weird, they are like funerals, everyone just talks about the past like it's the good old days, like you'll never talk to the couple again" I thought that was so true. In fact, weddings aren't quite like a funeral as far as devastation goes and mourning. But they are very much like massive going away parties.

Everyone cries. The family feels a loss. They reminisce over happy memories and brace themselves for the future. It's funny because it's not like the couple is moving over seas to Africa or leaving to Iceland. They actually might end up on your street as your neighbor, though you will never step foot on their yard till approxiamately 2 months later and only before 6pm. What a strange un-spoken rule!

But I get it. When my sisters get married, maybe I'll cry. My sister will probably go off to Africa in reality. But when I left for college, I left my sisters and I cried about that. When they get married I might cry from relief that they married well and are happy. I don't think I'll cry cause it's over or because it's me saying good-bye.

People joke about weddings being the beginning of life or the end. It's either a death sentence or a life sentence. A new birth or the end of a journey. While it's mixture of both, the wedding is certainly not solely the beginning or the end of life as we know it.

I have been considering Jesus and his talk of marriage and weddings in the New Testament. I have come to the conclusion that a wedding any day is stronger than a funeral. Why? Because what we gain is more than what we lose in the end. I don't know if this makes sense but maybe a wedding is not the starting line of a race or the finishing line, maybe it is the journey. The marriage is the journey. When I get to heaven and meet Jesus face to face I'll think I'll realize this. Because after all when you enter into eternity, there is no beginnings and endings. There is no start or finish. It just IS.

You can say good-bye to the going-away parties we throw all the time. :-)