Don Bissell, Assembly of God pastor, performed the wedding ceremony. Steve and Don were acquainted in years past when their families attended the same church.
We met with Don several weeks ago to discuss the ceremony. Steve and Don caught up a bit and one of the topics was a frock coat. I’m not sure of the history, but as we were sitting together, Steve asked Don if he had ever gotten a frock coat. Don replied that he hadn’t but that he’d like to get one.
Fast forward a bit – Don will not take a fee for doing a wedding ceremony but we wanted to do something and given that we intended to be in Western attire we decided to see about getting him a frock coat – it was a succesful mission. We gave it to Don, one snowy night, meeting at a parking lot 1/2 way between my house and on Don’s way home. He was pleased… We were pleased.
Looking at these photos, remembering the conversations with Don – conversation about our respective faith, about marriage, about how Steve and I met and came to the point of wanting to be married as well as thinking how to share more of Steve’s and my story…I also remembered something that struck me from a reading of yesterday morning.
Steve and I met in my back yard. ( How we met ) That we came to that place where we met but also at a time that was right for us to meet is nothing short of miraculous. Neither of us question that the hand of God – the same Divine Love that came to earth in the form of a child to save us – was part of our meeting, our growing relationship and now our marriage. We talk about all of it often.
We also talk about our hopes and dreams. Some of them seem beyond the realm of possible. Steve asked me the other day: “Last Christmas, did you ever think that you would be married this Christmas?” Last Christmas I didn’t think I even wanted to be married – ever. That we met, that in a fairly short time, I not only trusted, liked, respected and loved Steve BUT that I also absolutely wanted to be married to him and share my life completely is surprising to me, to say the least.
In The Drama of Christmas by Morton Kelsey, in a chapter about the Innkeeper who turned away Mary and Joseph, the observation is made that even given the Innkeeper’s faith (he was a religious and good man), “Probably the most significant blind spot was that he had limited expectations of what God could do”. Wow – that sentence hit home.
But current circumstances, meeting Steve a good and Godly man that I feel all my life’s experience has been preparing me for – a man who loves me without expecting me to change or be anything else than who I am – who also loves Karl, Bob, Montana, this little house, the woods and the outdoors – these current circumstances, they have been beyond anything I thought possible.
The days leading up to our wedding – the preparations of ourselves as well as the “stuff” – it all exceeded our limited expectations. I fully expect the rest of our lives to continue in the same way.
Don sent Steve and I an email 2 days before we were to be married with some thoughts on faith and marriage. The ceremony itself had the sweet aura of Divine Love, not only the words, but from the warmth and genuineness that flows from Don as well as from his wife, Cindy and the two of them as a couple. A simple ceremony with words that have been used for the marriage ceremony for years – I dearly hope that my expectations of what God can do are never limited.
*Photos in today’s post were taken by my step-Dad, Bill Morgan
