Bonus Entry!

The Wedding at Canaan

Because the trip to Houston for the Haley and Cameron Cooper Wedding disrupted my blog entries so thoroughly - and because I want to write a brief tribute to it - I am going to attempt a kind of compensation here.

An element of this story (which I love and have, likewise, thought much about from many different angles and even made the base of my prayers freshman year of college) which I have never considered is the image, the idea, of Jesus being at your wedding and you having no idea.

Think about that: the Messiah, the Chosen One of God, the Son of Man, God Himself, was at the wedding of two ordinary people and they had no idea. They just knew that there had been a momentary blip about the wine but then everything was all right.

And Mary was one of the lovely people supporting a wedding - a very expensive task that everyone actually clamors to do. Taking care so that the bride and groom can just be happy. So that the things that matter can be what they think about. And Jesus was there, blessing their marriage by making it His first miracle.

And I've thought before about how much I love that His first miracle was at a wedding - for an ordinary couple with a thoroughly ordinary problem - but it's actually quite easy to imagine, after a wedding of such epically beautiful proportions like Love's Labours Won this weekend, it is easy to imagine Jesus having been in attendance.

Not being particularly religious themselves, Haley and Cameron were married by a judge in a ceremony they created themselves. There was only the briefest mentions of God at their wedding. But I know He would have been (and probably was) quite comfortable sitting at one of the tables. Incidentally, if he could have fixed the air conditioning, it wouldn't have gone amiss.

I pray that you were, Lord, because they are wonderful and I hope You blessed them in that way and will do so always.

There was so much wild love whizzing about the place last night, from everyone - I like to think He was there, keeping the wine flowing and the guests dancing or simply sitting and watching, waiting to be asked. Blessing an ordinary marriage with His silent presence. The wedding couple might never have known Who was at their wedding, but I imagine God loves a good wedding.

After all, that's how He chose to describe His relationship to us.