Wedding Thoughts - Part 3 {ceremony - the readings}

Choosing the readings proved to be a difficult task. We spent months googling and flipping through our books, trying to find the perfect excerpts to reflect *us* and capture the mood/tone of what we wanted. All along we knew we wanted one scripture reading and one literary reading, but I was very set on venturing outside the box and away from the typical wedding/love readings. Here is what we ended up with:

Song of Songs 2:10-13, 8:6-7 read by the lovely Melissa:

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm;
for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If one offered for love all the wealth of his house,
it would be utterly scorned.

I love that first part: for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing has come... because it is so fitting for us. I speak for us both when I say that there were some dark and rainy days, relationship-wise, prior to meeting one another. And now finally, thankyouJesus, winter truly has passed so let the singing begin!!



The second reading was an excerpt from Donald Miller's book Blue Like Jazz, a book that is incredibly special to us, and there was no one more perfect to read it at the ceremony than my New York roommate Cynthia (the story & meaning behind Blue Like Jazz coming soon!):

I will love you, as sure as He loved me. I will discover what I can discover and though you remain a mystery, save God’s own knowledge, what I disclose of you I will keep in the warmest chamber of my heart, the very chamber where God has stowed Himself in me. And I will do this to my death, and to death it may bring me.

I will love you like God, because of God, mighted by the power of God. I will stop expecting your love, demanding your love, trading for your love, gaming for your love. I will simply love. I am giving myself to you, and tomorrow I will do it again. I suppose the clock itself will wear thin its time before I am ended at this altar of dying and dying again. God risked Himself on me. I will risk myself on you. And together, we will learn to love, and perhaps then, and only then, understand this gravity that drew Him, unto us.




...to be continued...