I'm so happy it hurts.

Last week, we took apart our daughter's bed--the four poster canopy I bought second hand from the classifieds when she was in high school. She thought I was silly, buying her a bed when she was practically grown up and ready to leave for college.
And I didn't even know then she would be gone for good, not even to return a single summer.
We dis-assembled the mirrored dresser too--my high school 4-H project after I discovered it in the shed at my great-grandparents' dairy farm. It was stowed there after their Victorian farmhouse burned down and a smaller, practical brick ranch built in its place.

A few days later, I stepped into the nearly empty bedroom and
a feeling of sudden despair swept over me--like when you misplace something
precious. The furniture was on its way to Memphis and our daughter would soon
approach her wedding altar.

The furniture was unloaded just minutes before a stormy downpour. Re-assembled and arranged in its new home, props in a new chapter. Somethings old in something new.

The wedding details took shape too. As the clouds cleared, friends and family reunited to witness the simply spiritual Saturday evening ceremony.
God showed up in wonderful ways.
The minister's failing heart was healed.
The lame man walked.
The girl who kissed dating good-bye smooched her true love.

As a fish out of water, the plain among fancy, I struggled to understand and maintain proper etiquette. Post advice is to remind the departing newlyweds, do you have your keys, your tickets, your money? Instead, as we said our goodbyes to the crazy in love couple, I blurted: do you have money?
I remembered, however, to eat cake.

Weddings seem to me a lot like the happiest homecomings;
and aren't funerals like unraveled weddings?
Both events necessitate an outpouring of love and fellowship.
Details precede the wedding and mostly follow the funeral: preparing the bride and her attendants/choosing the pallbearers, inviting the guests/receiving the sympathizers, stocking the new household/dispersing possessions no longer needed.
Legality and custom frame beginnings and ends. Dowry and inheritance.
Feasting is essential.
Flowers scent the air and misty eyes look to new ways of life.

And it's only the Bridegroom who makes it meaningful.