Ah, weddings. Gotta love 'em. The one I had on the beach last night apparently had some drama attached that began the night before. We did fine at the rehearsal. I met several of the bride and groom's friends. The best man concerned me. He was the groom's brother, and he was a big boy. Very muscular. Used to work as a bouncer. He had tattoos all over his body. Quite a few of them were, well … distracting. But the one that bothered me was a pentagram tattooed on his chest right under his throat. Made me wonder how it was going to go when I presented the gospel at the ceremony. As it turned out he was a really nice guy. He stayed interested in what I was saying and did a good job of encouraging his brother.
But the night before the wedding, after we had finished the rehearsal, one of the guys I met didn't have such a good night. The groom told me that he had a problem with alcohol and had been drinking all day. His girlfriend had returned to their hotel to pick up something, and he apparently felt abandoned, because when she returned he went ballistic. He was screaming at her and calling her all sorts of names. There was no calming him down. Finally he made the mistake of shoving her to the ground. The groom's brother, tattoo guy… bouncer guy, stepped in to keep the violence from escalating any further, and the drunk guy took a swing. That was all it took for the brother to go into bouncer mode. In seconds he had the guy in a headlock and down on the ground. The groom managed to get them separated, but the drunk guy ended up in jail for assault. Not so great a relational start for something that is supposed to be a celebration of relationship.
The wedding went off really well, though. We were supposed to start around sundown. Love that island time. So specific. We kind of set 7:30 as a baseline, but me and one other guy were the only ones there by then. He and I were joking about the sno cone truck's music serving as the wedding march. I think it was playing The Entertainer. He left before we got started, though. I think we finally got going around eight. That was after we had to move the front row of chairs to the back because the tide was coming in. We ended up having water trickling under our feet throughout the service, which was actually kind of cool. Literally, cool. Everybody in the wedding party was barefoot or in sandals anyway. The wind was blowing pretty hard, so I really had to project to be heard. A truck pulled up and parked next to where we were set up. They were ready to party on the beach, too. Very loud Latin beat music. The groom approached them quite nicely, though, and asked if they could turn it down during the wedding. They agreed happily, congratulated him, and baited their hooks. I was jealous. So other than the bride's little baby starting to cry when she saw her mommy, the hitching went off without a hitch.
Psalms 17:6-7 says, "I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer. Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes."
Father, walk with the couple from last night in their life together and draw them to you. And touch the guy who ended up in jail. Amen.
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