"Outdoor Wedding Wisdom" - Peter A. Black

I hope you and your loved ones enjoyed a safe and pleasant Canada Day celebration. My wife and I did. However, instead of writing about that, I’ve chosen to write about a family wedding, in which our oldest grandson and his fiancée were the bride and groom. 

(And yet, it’s not so much about them, but . . .)

This was the eve of what was to be a fairy-tale open-air wedding, set against the backdrop of shimmering sunlight over blue water, under an azure sky. More than one hundred chairs, set up in a series of orderly formations facing a handsome gazebo, awaited the arrival of the bride and groom and all involved in the wedding party for the rehearsal.

Gazebo: Bogey's Inn by St. Clair River, Ont. Photo: mrmblack

In the meantime, inside the banquet hall, several ladies (my wife and mothers of the bride and groom, among them) hurriedly steamed and ironed scores of white chair-back covers, plus some table covers. Other friends and families worked on decorations and table places, centre pieces and setting up a sound system. The rehearsal went beautifully, and eventually all found their way respectively to their motel rooms and homes.

The big day dawned, breaking and waking us all with angry skies, lightning bolts, thunderous claps and torrential rain. Phone calls and text messages zipped throughout the region that the venue for the ceremony was being moved to the church sanctuary in Corunna. During the hours between morning and afternoon, the storm passed through and the weather completely turned around. 

A number of guests and family folks gave retrospective sighs of relief that we’d been able to gather in an air-conditioned sanctuary instead of sitting outside under a blazing sun in high humidity. And then later, it was everyone back to the waterside venue for the reception. The adjacent banquet facilities were also

air-conditioned.

It was a marvellous event. The wisdom of having forethought and making back-up arrangements in event of inclement weather became fully evident, as circumstances proved.

Mitch and Ally: A couple in love with Jesus

Much goes into planning an event such as this. Surely much should also go into planning a life, and end of life, too! 

Estate planning is becoming a big thing in our culture, nowadays; pre-arranged and prepaid funerals too, and it is a good way to go, if at all possible. 

Not all people marry, but all people die.

 

Credit: iStockphoto; googlefree

How well do we prepare for that? Life is neither a bowl of cherries nor all sunshine and ice-cream sundaes. Storms of life inevitably come, and one day they will be over. The Scriptures speak starkly, telling us that people are “destined to die once, and after that to face judgement.”* That’s a pretty heavy cloud, I’d say.

Nevertheless, God can give us the wisdom to prepare for life beyond this life, through our trusting in Jesus Christ His Son’s sacrificial death and blood shed on the cross: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”**

~~~

*Hebrews 9:27; Romans 6:23. **

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Peter A. Black is a retired pastor – well, sort of retired – and lives in Southwestern Ontario. He writes a weekly inspirational newspaper column, P-Pep! and is author of Raise Your Gaze ... Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart, and Parables from the Pond – a children's / family book. ~~+~~