A Wedding Blessing

May 2, 2008, 12:00 pm; posted by
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What does it mean to you?
When you find a friend that is true?
Will you count all your treasures less precious than this?
I know two people who do. . .

— Honeytree

I\’m leaving for New York today to see my nephew Djere get married to his sweetheart Karen. It\’s exciting. I have been thinking about it more and more, as the day approaches, and I keep remembering a similar wedding 26 years ago this month when my wife and I were joined together in holy matrimony.

The days leading up to the wedding will be hectic, the day itself crazy. There will be so many things to do, so many people to greet and thank, so many well-wishers extending hands and hugs and hurried words of wisdom or encouragement. So here is my word of wisdom and encouragement, to be taken at leisure when times slow down a little bit.

The quote above is from a song played at our wedding in May 1982. I remember a lot of things about the wedding, but this one song, and this one verse, has stayed with me longer than any other. When I heard the line “Will you count all your treasures less precious than this?,” I remembered a round red tin container, the former home of butter cookies or some such thing, which then held the few treasures I possessed in life.

It held:
(1) REGGIE candy bar wrapper from 1977, when the Yankees were the reigning world champs
(1) ESSO coin/keychain fob that I had found in my coin collecting days
(1) tattered white/gold tassel from my graduation from Jefferson Community College in 1981
(1) bundle of articles I had written while serving a journalism internship at the Watertown Daily Times in spring 1981
(1) bulletin from the retirement service for Pastor Polly, my first pastor after I became a Christian.

It\’s odd the things that make up a man\’s life and dreams at the age of 21. I loved Jesus, sports, antiques, and the dream of being a newspaper reporter. In my mind, the tin and its contents were what I saw when I felt those words bidding me to take all that I had, every dream that I had ever dreamed, every object that I had treasured, and lay them down as meaningless compared to this woman whom I loved — and still love — with all my heart.

Life will be filled with so many complications, disappointments and surprises that I\’m not sure anyone could ever give a newly married man a map to safely navigate it all. But do this: treasure your wife above everything you have; love God; and love your children when they come. As the bondservant said in Exodus 21:5: “I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will forswear my right to be free.”


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