I officiated at another wedding last
night. This one was for one of the fire
fighters and his fiancée. I had the
chance to do “marriage boot camp” (Their
words, not mine) with them, so Chris and I got to know a little about them
along the way. They even visited
Seaside. They seemed really focused on
doing things “the right way,” so I feel pretty good about their prospects for
the future.
The service itself went really well. They had two extra things they added that
really made the event special. One was
the presence of a fire department honor guard throughout the ceremony. They presented the colors at the beginning of
the service. Two stood with the flags
during the ceremony and two stood at the back in the aisle. Very different and quite impressive. Of course the honor guard did a bang-up job,
and as I understand it, they were more than helpful in the preparations for the
event itself. Kind of like an extra Best
Man. Nice job, GFD Honor Guard.
The second unusual part of eth ceremony was
called the Lazo, or Lasso. The bride’s
family had a strong Mexican heritage, and the lasso is a part of that culture. After they exchanged vows, the bride’s
godparents draped the two of them with a circles of rope, joined in the center
with a cross. Great symbolism of being
connected by Jesus and bound together in marriage. Really pretty as well. Except when they got kind of hung up on one
of the bride’s earrings. That could have
been a bit … not fun. But they worked
through it and all was well.
My favorite part of the whole day, though,
came right at the beginning of the service.
As I mentioned the bride’s family has Mexican roots, and her father
speaks very little if any English at all.
One of the key parts of the ceremony is when he walked the bride down
the aisle and I ask “Who presents this woman to be married to this man?” They had worked out a system where the bride’s
Mom (who did speak English) joined
them at the front for that moment so she could answer the questioned. We worked out all the logistics at the
rehearsal. But I decided to give them a
little surprise. I asked a bilingual
friend of mine to translate the phrase into Spanish for me. Then, at the key moment, I asked the question
– in Spanish. As I was speaking I noticed
the Dad’s eyes widening and his whole countenance changing. He stood a little taller, listened a little
more closely. I quickly glanced down at
my notes one more time to make sure I was pronouncing things correctly. “Quien entrega a esta mujer para que se case
con este hombre?” (I know all the accent marks aren’t there. Neither is the upside down question mark at
the beginning, but I don’t know how to do all those thing on my computer). After I completed the question, both Mom and
Dad answered together, “Nosotros.” And then
she added, “We do,” to make sure I understood what they had just said. It was one of those sweet moments that no one
else really noticed, but I will remember.
James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you
know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”
Father, thank you for Tim and Lizz and
their commitment to each other. Now draw
them close to you. Amen.
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