Day 21-Finding Enjoyment in Others Joy

My husband has been doing pre-marital  counseling with a young couple who intended to have someone else perform the actual ceremony.  After spending some weeks meeting with the Amazing Dave, they decided they really wanted him to do the ceremony. Oh, did I mention the wedding was in two days? And the Amazing Dave was leaving town, and wouldn't be home until about 12 hours before this wedding?  

 He called me on his way out of town, with instructions to make sure his suit was clean, and to pray.  I did, and today, under a brilliant blue sky I watched a bride I don't know walk down the aisle to meet her groom.  

You don't have to know the couple to catch their joy.  The moment the bride appears, there is hardly a face without a smile in the place.  Among the women, some remember when she was a little girl and can't believe how beautiful and grown up she looks. Some remember that day when, with a mixture of nerves and excitement, the door opened for them and they took those steps down the aisle. Some smile in anticipation of that coming day when the door will open and all eyes will be on them, especially the eyes of that one man at the end of the aisle.  

I don't know what the men think when they smile.  Maybe they remember their bride too, or they remember playing ball with the groom when he was just a little tyke.  In that moment, when the door opens, we all smile at the beauty and promise before us as a bride meets her groom. 
There was a tender and unique moment in this wedding. The brides grandfather, a man full of years, came up and held a vase as the bride and groom poured the two smaller vases of different colored sand into it to represent the coming together of their lives.  In the bottom of the vase is a rock, to symbolize that their life together is to be built on the foundation of Jesus. This man, a rock, no doubt, to this family, was touched lovingly on the arm by the bride as she finished, and I had to look away as my eyes filled with tears.  

 It's not unusual for me as a pastors wife to attend a wedding where I don't know anyone but I never fail to enjoy it.  If you take a few moments to let the enjoyment of someone else wash over you, you will find it to be contagious.  You catch it.  Then as you go your way, you may very well find yourself to be the source to infect someone else with joy.  You're going to infect those around you with something today- 

 If you're going go around infecting people, shouldn't it be with joy? 

 Rejoice with those who rejoice...Rom 12:15

   

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