It's about 2AM and I'm finally home for the day, but I still feel like posting my thoughts.
This afternoon my former roomate Ricky married his best friend, Allesha. I was one of the groomsmen so I got close contact with the entire proceeding without necessarily having much responsibility throughout it. I tried to support Kevin Connolly - the best man - as much as possible, and get to know the other groomsmen and ushers that I didn't know as well. It was a great experience to share with my roommate Pete and with the so so so many other people that took part in the wedding in various capacities.
They had friends in from Louisiana, Minnesota, Portland, Rockford, Muncie, Indy, Evansville, Toronto, Northern Virginia, California, and Florida, from the people I knew at least. They also had a wide variety of friends from around town. There was standing room only in one of the largest Catholic churches in South Bend, Holy Cross Parish. The wedding party intentionally had no time allowed at the church for greeting guests; I'd never quite experienced that before, but I felt it really allowed the ceremony to be all about the marriage, while still allowing for a huge amount of greeting time during the reception.
Just like at two previous People of Praise weddings, I entered the reception reluctant to dance, and ended it feeling very carefree and enjoying both my own opportunities to dance and also just to see the huge range of people out there on the floor, from 4 year olds to middle-schoolers, high schoolers, college students, young adults, middle-aged couples, and older couples - the best ones out there. It's really a unique experience to be out there with all those age groups mixed together. I am repeatedly struck by how healthy and clean it can be while still attracting even the coolest of high-schoolers. :) A very enjoyable experience of unity!
And, like usual, it makes me yearn for the time when Christ will be all-in-all, when all divisions will cease. It's both a taste of it, and a taste of only having a finite amount of time to divide between all the wonderful people there.
This afternoon my former roomate Ricky married his best friend, Allesha. I was one of the groomsmen so I got close contact with the entire proceeding without necessarily having much responsibility throughout it. I tried to support Kevin Connolly - the best man - as much as possible, and get to know the other groomsmen and ushers that I didn't know as well. It was a great experience to share with my roommate Pete and with the so so so many other people that took part in the wedding in various capacities.
They had friends in from Louisiana, Minnesota, Portland, Rockford, Muncie, Indy, Evansville, Toronto, Northern Virginia, California, and Florida, from the people I knew at least. They also had a wide variety of friends from around town. There was standing room only in one of the largest Catholic churches in South Bend, Holy Cross Parish. The wedding party intentionally had no time allowed at the church for greeting guests; I'd never quite experienced that before, but I felt it really allowed the ceremony to be all about the marriage, while still allowing for a huge amount of greeting time during the reception.
Just like at two previous People of Praise weddings, I entered the reception reluctant to dance, and ended it feeling very carefree and enjoying both my own opportunities to dance and also just to see the huge range of people out there on the floor, from 4 year olds to middle-schoolers, high schoolers, college students, young adults, middle-aged couples, and older couples - the best ones out there. It's really a unique experience to be out there with all those age groups mixed together. I am repeatedly struck by how healthy and clean it can be while still attracting even the coolest of high-schoolers. :) A very enjoyable experience of unity!
And, like usual, it makes me yearn for the time when Christ will be all-in-all, when all divisions will cease. It's both a taste of it, and a taste of only having a finite amount of time to divide between all the wonderful people there.