Tradition is a funny thing.
Last night, Michael and I went to the wedding of a family friend (on my side). She's more than a friend, really. More like a cousin though we're not related by blood...or by marriage for that matter. Her aunt and my mom and been best friends since the 7th grade. Aunt Susie, as they call my mom, has made all of our wedding cakes; the bride's for this wedding, the bride's sister for hers, the bride's cousin (her real cousin, Nicole, the daughter of my mom's best friend) and mine for both of my weddings.
We've all been serenaded by Nicole's father with the same song ~ My Girl ~ and we've all used the same D.J. (as far back as this bride's Bat Mitzvah!) which, I must tell you is something of a joke because he's totally stuck in the 80's which isn't such a bad thing if (like me) you happen to like that era for music. It's just that what he plays isn't the good stuff. With him you get the Chicken Dance, the Electric Slide, Night Fever and the theme from Ice Castles (which he played twice at our wedding despite being told ~ quite vehemently by me ~ not to do and my apologies to any of you who look forward to the Chicken Dance). Now, however, it's just how we roll, to coin a phrase, and our celebrations wouldn't be quite the same without all of these....traditions.
The wedding we went to yesterday was a Jewish one and it was lovely. Not that I've ever been to a wedding that wasn't lovely (and believe me, I've been to a lot because my mom used to decorate cakes for a living) but something struck me this time. It was the tradition of it all....the timelessness, symbolism, the history.
I love to eat dates!
What? How did we go from traditons and wedding to dates? Stay with me here, I promise I'll tie it all together.
Whenever I eat dates I always say to my boys, "You know....Jesus ate dates," to which I get resounding moans of, "Maahhhmmmm....you always say that!" It's true though! I don't just eat dates because I enjoy their shockingly sweet chewiness; I love eating them because I know that my Lord ate them too. I'm sure that each wedding Jesus attended was a Jewish wedding and that He saw and partook in many of the traditions that we did last night. I just LOVE that! I'm sure that Jesus said "Amen!" after each of the Seven Blessings were read by the rabbi over the bride and groom; that He shouted, "Mazel Tov!" when the groom broke the glass and that He held hands with the wedding guests and danced the Hora around the bride and groom with much joy and merriment!
I felt close to the Lord last night.
Just like I do when I eat dates.
Just like I do when Michael prays over me.
Just like I do when I know that the sun I see everday is the same one that Jesus created....the same sun He saw when He walked the earth.
So...go eat some dates.
Just last night I was reading about the symbolism of a Jewish wedding. How sweet to come here and read you had attended a wedding.
ReplyDeleteOh, the joy of a wedding...even those of us who have experienced so many disappoinments in our own marriage can still relate to the hopes of a Bride and Groom on their Wedding Day...so many dreams of their lives together..without the realizaiton of what love may cost them. Weddings remind us of our own love stories, though they may now look nothing like the vision we once had for them. Love is like that..Paul said, "love always hopes, it always trusts, it always believes." Weddings bring us back to the beginning place where our own love was once so innocent and full of promise. I believe marriage should be that way still, that everyday of our lives together can be lived out in passion and beauty. I believe God thinks so too, lest you think I should be cynical with so much evidence around me that marriage is misery personified...let me show you God's heart on the matter.
This has been a reoccuring theme from the beginning of time. The first Wedding, in a perfect Garden, under the canopy of heaven, Adam and Eve were joined together, the Trinity their wedding guests. Taken from Adam's side was his challah, his Bride, just as we are taken from Christ's side. Challah in the Hebrew is Bride, it means to complete, to make perfect. Chatan in Hebrew is a Bridegroom which also means an affinity for. The first Bride and Groom, she would complete him, he was created to be close to her.
Have you ever pondered how Jesus BEGAN His public minsitry at the Wedding Of Cana? He turned water into wine, a prophetic foretelling of His own death. How He would be poured out to cleanse us by the water of His own Word of Redemption and give us new wine in earthen jars to be receptacles of His Holy Spirit. When at the Cross the Roman soldier would pierce a sword through His side and birth His Bride. To ponder further...our romance with Jesus will FINISH with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, their will be joy unending, as we are married forever to our Beloved Bridegroom,Jesus.
This is God's declaration for all time, that Marriage is at the center of His heart. I pray our own marriages seek to invite this God of love into our unions and know joy unspeakable for always.
To begin and end in love...