Wedding

This weekend, the trip to Atl to attend a wedding and then the trip to Cleveland yesterday, was a very rich and humbling experience.

I'll start with the wedding. To watch 2 of my greatest friends get married to each other after all they have been through was an honor. It was a big wedding with lots of relatives and guests coming from all over but it didn't "feel" like a big wedding. In lots of ways, it felt very intimate and very much like Bindu and Wayne. The ceremony, though time-wise was lengthy but it didn't feel that way. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended. Each part of the ceremony, every word that was spoken, pointed to Christ and His love as the source of Bindu and Wayne's love for each other and their love for others. You could tangibly feel the love and joy in the room at experiencing what we had all been waiting for: the union of these 2 people. In the best sense, this wedding gave me a taste of what it would feel like when Christ is finally reunited with His bride. There was hardly a dry eye in the audience. I think we all teared up at some point. It was an indescribable feeling of beauty, intimacy, love and joy. All radiating from Christ at the center of it all.

As to why it was a humbling experience: Bindu and Wayne are 2 of the most gracious and relational people I have ever known. Their Christ-like love towards others (especially when I experience it) humbles me. I was staying at the Hilton (courtesy of God's blessing on my parents and in turn, their blessing and generosity towards me and my friends) and I had arrived early. Bindu flagged me down when she saw me in the lobby (I was planning on exploring around because i was bored and it turns out that Bindu and a lot of her relatives were staying there too) and to make a long story short, she made me feel helpful and a part of her wedding (not just an outsider attendee/guest. What surprised me was that even though it was such a big wedding and she and Wayne were most likely extremely busy, she would take the time to sort of "take care" of me. Their patience and graciousness towards everyone during all the hustle and bustle, was amazing to me. I mean people were getting lost all over the place, cell phones were constantly ringing, other people were freaking out, miscommunication all over the place, rides needing to be worked out, the schedule was behind, etc. and there was Bindu and Wayne, calmly asking about my grandfather, talking to the relatives that came in from Kuwait and serving them coffee, including me in the rehearsal dinner and the pre-ceremony events even though they didn't have to. I guess what gets me is that they didn't have to do that much and yet they still managed to do those small things and go the extra mile on many occasions for many people on one of the busiest and important day of their lives. I mean, it was THEIR wedding. THEIR day. I would totally have understood. I mean, wow. I hope I can be like that. And so it was humbling to me to see that really, there's no time when self-centeredness is justified (though society would have us think that marriage is all about the bride, all about the couple, etc.). Just like Christ, who did not consider his equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather he made himself nothing [Phil 2:6-7]. Any bride (and hence, in a bigger application, the Church as Christ's bride) should not consider their status as a bride something to be used to her own advantage; rather make herself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant. Humbling indeed for someone like me, who, as a woman, looks forward to being a bride someday.

Besides the wedding, it was really good to spend some quality time with godly people and really learn from them, laugh with them, reminisce with them, catch up with them, get to know them better, etc. Inspiring, fun, and growthful at the same time. What more could I ask for?
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On another note, you should ask me (or Andrew) about our Wendy's experience on our way back to Cleveland. SOOOOO funny!