|
Written by Richard McCuistian
|
|
Monday, 16 March 2009 |
The Wedding
Pride can be very costly. I never knew how costly it could be until our wedding day. Diane and I got married after we had been engaged for a year. I loved her more than life itself, but we weren't together very long. Diane had told me one evening not long before we were married that unless I came to saving faith in Jesus Christ, the wedding was off. My friend Henry had told me about Jesus for years, but my pride got in the way. But now I would do anything to appease Diane, and keep our wedding plans moving. My charm and good looks had managed to land most of my other dates in bed, but this little lady had firmly refused. Initially, I had decided I wouldn't take Diane out anymore, but there was something magnetic and magnificent about her. She had an incredible joy and an unusual spirit; only now do I know Who that Spirit was. As a result of our abstinence, the lust that had attracted me to her in the beginning quickly turned into a love so powerful that I would have done anything she asked me to. Almost. But I began to realize why abstinence before marriage was such a good idea. The more time I spent in Diane's company, the more I wanted her to be my choice for life. And now I knew how a premarital relationship was supposed to work. The women I had dated before her had satisfied my physical desires, but Diane's purity and chastity had put my heart in her hands. I started going to church with her almost every Sunday; it wasn't like I was a stranger to everybody. For instance, Henry was in the congregation every Sunday, but church was nothing more to me than a place where I could spend a little more time with Diane. When I made my way past the ushers and into the church "sanctuary" as they called it, I would find the place with my eyes where she was always sitting, there near the front. My heart would jump with gladness every time I spotted her, and Diane's sweet smile when I sat down next to her only served to strengthen the feelings I had for her. We would stand and sing hymns and sit together in the worship service and I could smell Diane's perfume. I really enjoyed the adrenaline rush of having her there next to me and feeling her soft hand in mine. Oh, I heard what the preacher said about unrepentant sinners in the hands of an angry God, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the last days, Noah's flood, the Cross at Calvary, heaven and hell, the coming Rapture of the church, living the Christian life, being "born again" as they called it, becoming a new creation in Jesus Christ, and all the rest of it, but I wasn't interested in anything except Diane. On our way out, we would shake hands with the preacher where he stood near the exit, and I still remember how on sunny days Diane's hair would shine like gold. I surprised her with my marriage proposal along with an engagement ring, halfway expecting her not to accept it. To my surprise, she simply smiled and put my ring on her finger. Her parents had strong misgivings. They knew I was an unbeliever, but Diane was in love with me now, and her course was set; there was nothing they could do or say to change her mind. After all, Diane was in her mid-twenties, and she was making her own decisions, and our wedding plans were under way. Everything seemed to be going my way. But then, a month before we married, she hit me with that bombshell. Unless I was willing to place my faith in Jesus Christ, Diane was going to take off her ring and walk away. It seemed that this Jesus meant more to her than I did; I didn't understand it. Her convictions really got in my craw sometimes, and I told her so. "Charlie, some people live by preference, and some live by conviction," she said. "Preferences can be changed by circumstances, but convictions flow out of who a person is. You've lived by preference all your life. And I know how many relationships you've had. If we're married, when your preferences begin to change, you'll stop going to church with me, no matter how much you love me now, and Satan will most certainly tempt you to become involved with somebody else. Satan has enormous powers of temptation, and only Jesus can give you the power to prevail over him. I just can't marry a man who doesn't live by conviction, and the only truly unchangeable convictions come from a personal commitment to Jesus Christ." My evil pride took control and I angrily refused. Diane left me standing there with my engagement ring in my hand while she walked away. For a couple of days I didn't call her, but she was constantly on my mind. I simply couldn't understand this twist in our relationship, and it was incredible to me that she would break off our engagement when I hadn't done anything to betray her trust. Finally, I swallowed my pride and called her. I told her I'd make the commitment to Christ. "After all," I thought, "what difference could it really make?" She wanted me to say a prayer with her right there on the phone, but I hadn’t swallowed that much of my pride yet. I convinced her that I wanted it to happen at church the following Sunday. After all, her prayers made me nervous. Diane prayed every time we went out and it always unnerved me to hear her talking to Jesus like He was sitting there between us. She agreed reluctantly, but she wouldn't see me again or take the ring back until my "profession of faith" was behind us. I listened to the sermon, pretended to cry a little, swallowed some of my pride, (not all of it!) and headed down the aisle to the front, where I said a strange little prayer with the preacher about knowing I was a sinner, asked Jesus to come into my heart and said "Amen," whatever that meant. Then I stood at the front of the church feeling like a fool while Diane tearfully greeted all those who filed past us. I felt a little different, but not much. I hadn't swallowed all my pride yet. The pastor baptized me the following Sunday; it was humiliating to have all those people watch a man dunk me, but I blew the water out of my nose, dried myself off with the towel Diane handed me, and came out the water basically unchanged. I still had my pride. The best thing was that now Diane was going to marry me, and that was all that mattered. My only conviction at this point in time was that I was going to do whatever I could to make her happy. I wasn't sure about this "Jesus Christ" character, but He could wait, and I still didn't really understand what everybody thought I had done that day when I "professed faith in Christ." It seemed like nothing more than a silly ritual. Our wedding day came, and the church was filled to capacity. I stood with the best man and watched the ushers seating people. The organ got quiet for a moment, then thundered into a very loud Here Comes the Bride. When all the people came to their feet in a rustling rush, the front door swung open and sunlight came pouring in as I watched the silhouette of the most beautiful woman I knew walk down the aisle with her dad. Their trip to the altar seemed to take forever. Through the open doors, I could see the white limousine that was to take us to the airport. We planned to fly to Florida and take a cruise to Nassau, where we'd honeymoon for a week. With her every step toward me on the rich red carpet, my heart pounded faster. There was a roaring in my ears, and I wondered if my tux was heaving with the pounding of my heart.
When Diane's father said his carefully rehearsed lines and turned her over to me, I looked into those clear, steel gray eyes of his. That one look said it all. If I mistreated his daughter, I'd have to answer to him. We turned to face the preacher while the audience remained standing. The stuff he read from that little book seemed unnecessarily long, and it felt good to take the wide golden band from Henry and slip it onto her hand. We had both said our "I do's" and the preacher told me I could kiss the bride. I raised her veil and took her in my arms. As I pressed her against me, I barely heard the strange, pervasive, siren-like sound I heard from the skies outside. One moment I could feel Diane’s body against me and her lips against mine for the very first time, and the next I was holding an empty wedding dress and her rings had dropped to the floor. I heard shrieks and shouts from those watching us. It was like slow motion bad dream. Whirling around, I found the preacher gone. Three of the six bridesmaids had disappeared, and two of those remaining had fainted. All but one of the ushers had vanished, along with my friend Henry; his clothes and his glasses lay in a heap beside me. Flowers were strewn about where they had fallen. As I clutched Diane's empty wedding dress, I turned to face the audience, finding only a few stunned and shocked people standing among pews draped with suits and brightly colored dresses. Eyeglasses and false teeth lay everywhere. Rings, watches, shoes, and hats, and dentures littered the aisle. I could hear horns blasting and a cannonade of multiple car crashes shattering the normal street sounds outside. My mind was racing, and my heart was pounding. I turned to step down off the altar and tripped myself with the long train of Diane's empty dress, tumbling head over heels down the steps. It should have been embarrassing, but nobody was watching me. People were still shrieking and howling with fear and confusion. Everybody else ran out as I untangled myself from Diane's dress and came to my feet, standing there alone among the empty clothes. The preacher's Bible lay open on the steps where it had fallen from his hands when he vanished. I noticed some words he had highlighted with a yellow marker and I stooped to read them without touching the pages.
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus shall we always be with the Lord."
|
|
Last Updated ( Monday, 16 March 2009 )
|
|
Sharing Knowledge 
