wedding

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They Did It And We’re Done

It’s been a long time, but this past weekend they did it, and now we are officially done.

They did it and we're done

There are times when you are ready for the next chapter, next phase, but you are waiting on others to get you there.

Well, we just had one of those moments this past weekend. It’s been 34 years in the making but it was all worth the wait. 

On Sunday we watched our youngest – Lily’s baby boy – get married.

To be fair, I did more than just watch the whole thing take place; I performed the ceremony. So, in a sense, I got it done. Without my signature on their marriage licence it wouldn’t have happened.

I think every parent thinks and dreams about the day when their kids grow up, move out and get married to the girl or guy of their dreams. To be honest, it might be for some ulterior motive. What parents really want is grandkids! 

We want to redo having young children in our lives, only this time with very little day-to-day responsibility. 

In our case the first step has been achieved: we have a new family. 

But this has taken so long that I’m concerned that I will not be able to do justice to my role as grandpa. I might be so old that the kids will have to play on me rather than me play with them. 

Wait … actually when my kids were little they would play on me while I flaked out in the middle of the living room. … I guess that will be okay then.

With our son, Mike, taking so long to get married, it has meant I have had to wait a very long time to use hidden embarrassing material against him.

When Mike was about three, he and his sister, Karlie, each had a PlaySchool cassette recorder. Attached to each recorder was a hand-held microphone. They almost wore out the cassette tapes they made so many recordings. 

But Mike made a certain recording of a song with some background music playing. He made up some words in time with the tune. 

When Lily let me listen to what he made, I knew immediately that I somehow needed to save it for the right moment. 

Several years went by with Mike’s song still on that cassette. When the technology existed, I made a digital copy of it on my computer. As computer sound programs got more sophisticated, I eventually filtered some of the noise out and bumped up the volume. 

Finally this weekend came and I got to play that 30 second clip of that 31 year old song. 

One person at the wedding was embarrassed but 200 others got a big kick out of it. I figure if you can’t embarrass your son at his wedding, when can you?

Natalie, Mike’s new wife is a beautiful addition to our family. 

Now we’re done; both kids are married. Bring on the grandkids!

Here’s the thing: Christ is going to return one day and those who have placed their faith in Him will go to heaven. But in the meantime, we wait for that special day and His arrival as we live our lives out here.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: What are you waiting for someone to complete so you can be done? Leave your comments and questions below.

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The Wait Is Over And It Was All Worth Waiting For

Though it was a long time coming, the wait was worth it. Sometimes we can wait so long for something that we lose the joy and excitement of it. Sometimes we lose interest in it all together. 

the wait is over and it was all worth waiting for

I’ve had the same putter for forty years. There have been a couple of times that I’ve thought of getting a new one, but I waited, thinking that it might be a birthday present that someone would want to give me. 

At one time you could buy a nice putter for thirty or forty dollars. Now a good putter can run you into the hundreds. I thought of saving my money for one, but by the time I had enough money to get one, I decided I didn’t really want a new putter any more. 

Then there are times when you want something for a long time and you never lose interest during that long wait. 

Almost from the time we moved into our house, I wanted to get a pool table. But our kids were young and a pool table would have taken up a lot of playing space for the kids. 

Years went by, but my desire to get a pool table didn’t wain. 

When the kids were older and that space in the basement was no longer being used for a hockey rink, football field or wrestling ring, I started to get serious about getting a pool table. 

But they are expensive and I had to wait. I even took masking tape and outlined the shape on the rug in the family room so I could see exactly where it would go. 

Though the wait was long, I never wavered and eventually got that pool table. 

Well, last weekend, two years and two months after our daughter, Karlie, and her husband, Matt, got married before an audience of eight, they did it again. 

This time there were 160 family and friends who showed up to celebrate their marriage. We had a full wedding ceremony and reception. 

I thought that maybe after the long wait, the event would be anticlimactic, that it would seem lame because it was so after-the-fact. I wondered whether people would take the time to come because, after all, Karlie and Matt were already married. 

And there had already been two previous attempts to have this public celebration. 

They had rescheduled their celebration for a few months later in 2020, hoping that COVID restrictions would be over … but that was not the case. We didn’t even begin planning that one because it became obvious very quickly that it would not be possible. 

They again made plans to walk down the aisle one year after their wedding … but that didn’t work either. 

So two years and two months later, the wait was finally over. 

And our daughter’s wedding was just as exciting and joy-filled as if it was the first time! 

Here’s the thing: Christ will be coming back again. The wait has been long that some have lost interest, some think He’s not coming. The long wait is because God is patiently waiting for us to respond to His love offer. So don’t lose interest; get excited about Christ’s return. The wait will be worth it all. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you been waiting a long time for? Leave your comments and questions below.

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When Déjà Vu Goes The Opposite Way

Déjà vu – we’ve heard the phrase. Many of us would say we’ve experienced it before. Well, I just experienced the opposite of déjà vu. 

When Deja Vu goes the opposite way

The word “déjà vu” is a French word meaning “seen before”. It’s when you feel like you’ve in some way already lived through what you are experiencing.

The opposite of this is called “jamais vu”. It’s also a French word, but it means “never seen”. It’s the feeling or experience you have when you recognize or know a situation, but it still seems very unfamiliar or unknown.

I’m using this definition loosely, but that’s what I just experienced last night at my niece’s wedding. 

Everything had gone well … the ceremony, the pictures, the spring roll h’or d’oeuvres which were really delicious and hit the spot before dinner. The speeches were meaningful, funny, touching and not too long. The food was delicious. 

Then it came time for the first dance. 

The bride and groom had picked a particular number to dance to and they had worked out some planned moves during the song. 

When that first dance was over, it was time for the bride to dance with her father. 

This is where I experienced jamais vu. 

Watching my brother on the dance floor dancing with his daughter was something I recognized. But with my daughter’s wedding coming up in about four months, it was also very unfamiliar and unknown. 

I watched John move around the dance floor, trying to detect if he had any special skills or moves that I might have to learn for when it was my turn. 

Nope. Nothing.

There was no pre-rehearsed number where he ended up doing the splits or the whole wedding party joined in sync with their choreography. 

There was none of that.

There was just John and Angela moving around the dance floor together, to a familiar song by a member of the rock group, Genesis.

That could have been significant because John loved Genesis and Phil Colins’ drumming. 

It had been suggested that John stop dancing part way through the song and play a drum solo while the song continued. However, this particular song didn’t have a drum solo … and John never sat down behind a drum kit. 

So though I don’t know what to expect when it’s my turn to do the father daughter dance, I now have an example of one that I could pull off without any practice … as long as my daughter doesn’t get any big ideas, or watch too many Youtube videos of father daughter dances. 

I do have one excuse and that is my knee. It’s still been giving me trouble and, unless I wear my brace, I think I may have to roam around the dance floor with my daughter much like my brother did with his daughter. 

… And that will give him deja vu.

Here’s the thing: We can read about heaven in the Bible. There are some passages that even give us a glimpse of what it will be like. The Lord tells us about His presence in heaven, but when we get there, to us it will be jamais vu “never seen”. We may recognize aspects of heaven but it will seem unfamiliar, unknown … but amazing!

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you experienced that seems unfamiliar or unknown to you? Leave your questions and comments below.

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We Celebrated Yet Again

The other night my wife, Lily, and I celebrated our wedding anniversary – our 33rd.

It’s pretty normal to mark special occasions with a celebration of some kind. Some celebrations include many people, some just a special place. 

Lil and I have celebrated in different ways over the years. There were some that are more memorable than others. 

There was the time on our tenth anniversary that we stayed a night in the Fantasyland Hotel at West Edmonton Mall. We had a choice between choosing the Trucker Room, where the bed was actually in the back of a pickup truck, or the Polynesian Room with a canopy bed, a large fountain jacuzzi tub, and greenery that gave the feeling of being in a garden. 

Lil picked the Polynesian Room over the Trucker Room which was okay because I wasn’t really drawn to sleeping in the back of a pickup truck anyway. 

Many of our anniversary celebrations have involved just the two of us going out for a nice dinner to a unique or special restaurant. 

But there have been times when the celebration got bigger and extended – like for our 25th anniversary. That was kind of a whole year celebration. 

We started out at the beginning of the year going a cruise with our children, marking likely our last family vacation. Then a few months later, we spent 14 days on a tour of Israel. We finished off our “year of jubilee” with purchasing a park model trailer at our vacation spot at Sauble Beach. 

It was an expensive anniversary celebration, but one year we won’t forget. 

Celebrations are necessary; they highlight something that is special. They cause us to reminisce about the past and recall the good things, accomplishments, and milestones of life. 

They cause us to remember why the thing we are celebrating matters. 

We celebrate birthdays, achievements, goals, successes, victories, and even sometimes we celebrate for the sake of celebration. 

The thing about celebrations is that they pertain only to those on the inside of the celebration. 

The other night Lily and I had dinner at a restaurant on the St. Lawrence River, overlooking the water from a screened in porch. As the sun went down and the moon came up, the light glimmered across the water. The boats below us gently rocked back and forth tied to their docks. 

It was special, but the people who were seated at tables around us had no idea we were celebrating anything. They weren’t party to our celebration. 

It was a private celebration in public.

A celebration can include many, but the many will only celebrate if they are connected in some way to the special occasion. Otherwise they are completely oblivious to it all. It makes no impression, no remembrance, no reminder. 

Only the celebrants experience the richness of the occasion. But for them, even when it is quiet, it’s a true celebration … Happy anniversary, Lil.

Here’s the thing: There will be a celebration when Christ returns. When Christ returns, this world will be made right. There will be peace; there will be joy; there will be a celebration. But that celebration, like any celebration, will be for those who are connected to Christ. It will be the greatest celebration this world has ever known, but it will be anything but a celebration for those who have no tie to Jesus. No one will want to miss being part of this celebration, so make sure you have a personal relationship with the One who is being celebrated. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you have to celebrate today? Leave your comments below.

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It Was a Royal Day At My House

It was a royal day in our house today. I don’t mean we had a visit from someone from the royal family or anything. The day was just filled with hours of television tuned to the proceedings and the analysis of the royal wedding of Harry and Meghan.

I’m not much of a royal family follower. I have a hard time identifying anyone past the next in line to the throne. But my wife, Lily, can recognize pretty much anyone who has a remote chance of being the king or queen.

I wasn’t sure if she would be getting up at 4 am to start watching the festivities, but she discovered that we have a PVR so she decided to sleep in a bit and watch the pregame show later.

When I left for hockey at 6 am, all was quiet at our house, but by the time I got back at around 8 am, the TV was definitely on and tuned in. 

She kept channel surfing too, not to see what else was on but to check out the quality of coverage on the other networks.

I, however, had lots to do and didn’t really have time to watch a wedding. After all, I’ve performed many weddings; I didn’t need to watch one on TV.

But there it was; I couldn’t get around it. So I found myself watching some of the ceremony and that long, tedious drive around town in a buggy.

They could have gotten to the reception in about one minute, but they took a ride in a horse-drawn carriage down a road they called, “The Long Walk”.

I noticed the horses acting up a little, so maybe they found it to be a long walk as well.

This wedding captured Lily’s attention. She didn’t want me to make any comments about the hats and fascinators, or any of the people in attendance. 

She didn’t even like me singing along to “Stand By Me” when the choir sung. She just wanted to soak it all in without any distraction. 

I couldn’t help thinking that at hockey a few hours earlier no one in the dressing room had mentioned the wedding. And no one was in a hurry after hockey to get home to see it.

… That’s not to say that I didn’t have any comments to make about the wedding.

There were a few things I noticed: 

Oprah Winfrey seemed to be walking around aimlessly in a daze. Elton John didn’t seem to like the sermon from the Bishop. He had his nose turned up when the camera was on him.

The Queen must have forgotten her glasses, because she was all bent over when they sang the hymn. She could barely see the words.

The bride’s mother seemed to be more sad than happy with everything that was going on. 

The commentators yammered on way too much about nothing. 

And Prince Phillip was walking really well for a guy in his late 90’s who’d just gotten a new hip! 

Those are just some of the things I noticed.

Here’s the thing: When something impressive, something that is bigger than life comes along, it captures our attention. We take notice and pause to take it all in. God has given us His Word, which is filled with insight into Him and what He wants us to know. Don’t act like you don’t have access. Let it capture your attention every day.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What strikes you about God’s Word? Leave your comments below.