April & Getting Married

Pictures do not always come out the way we expect them to. This one below falls into that category of unexpected surprises we find in our envelopes from the developer. Digital photography has eliminated some of our wait, but the results can still be filled with those
photos that quite literally shout, "How did I get this?" I enjoyed this one a lot. While fiddling with it in the program I am presently using I could add enough light to see the people, but chose to leave it this way for another purpose. The wedding was sweet, about 25 people and my wife and I.
This was not a "formal" wedding, but it was a good one! Two weeks ago we attended the 50th anniversary of two very special friends. I had heard the story before of how they got married(I had heard it before maybe ten years ago at their 40th but listened intently)as June described the circumstances. She was 15 and with child, Bearnie was 20 and entering the airforce. I shared my thoughts with June concerning how things have changed the past 50 years. She might have been urged to get an abortion, he may have been charged with a horendous crime and gone to jail for years in our world of today. She agreed and we went about celebrating with 60 or so friends and family. There were some at yesterday's event that chose not to attend the reception because they did not agree with the couple getting married, as if they could predict the bleak, black future that would unfold if they were wed. Marriage doesn't always work, fact. But there is no way of being certain that it won't until it has been given an opportunity. Perhaps June and Bearnie are the total exceptions to all of the standards we set today. I would like to think not. Some would say I am not realistic. I'll admit that part, but I really do believe that if
our changing, evolving world is going to be "better" in the years to come that we must do something to actively promote the "good" in it now. Fifty years and weddings have changed. Somewhere in our country yesterday a person named Bob married a person by the name of Larry. A Janet married a Denise and some people were upset about these kids I did the service for(actually, in my mind, I did the service because that is what I believe God would have me do)getting hitched so young. In all good conscience I cannot do the joining together in Holy Matrimony two persons of the same sex, but 15, female and with child and 20, wanting to do the "right" thing. No problem! In Christ's Love, Preacher.

April in the Sanctuary