a surrender - 51

(Continuing "a surrender", chapter seven, "freely have you received, freely give") 

We were amazed by the response to our presentation. Though some hard questions were asked, what we heard from them was almost completely positive. There was a surprising feeling of energy from the community, and the sense that we all wanted to work together to figure out a way through the difficulties. Our personal visits with a number of people in the following days confirmed that impression. We were thrilled.

“I will give you rest,” the wind had whispered in the pines. After working so hard, for months without a pause to catch our breath, and searching and struggling for two years until we were about to give up, the answer had been on a cluttered desk, in a newsletter about a retreat house for poor people. And a memory of a farm once visited. It felt like a miraculous gift.

The next morning I woke up even earlier and couldn’t sleep any more. But this time it felt like I was a kid on Christmas morning. I didn’t want to miss anything.

Three months later, we were married. A beautiful, grassy clearing in the woods was offered for the ceremony, and a simple cabin for our honeymoon. The cake was amazing, decorated with wild Sweet William blossoms, a gift made by a woman who lived on the farm. Heather’s aunt offered to arrange the flowers. Her uncle, the pastor, performed the marriage and her aunt, the music director at their church, arranged and performed the songs we had chosen, along with other musician friends. A friend gave me a beautiful Guatemalan shirt to wear. And Heather made her lovely white wedding dress. Many other people at the farm volunteered to help set up and decorate, and clean up afterwards, and also offered hospitality to many of our friends and family from out of town. And to us as well. An older couple had shared their home with us when we moved to the farm, and continued to do so through the first few months of our marriage.

During the wedding, under a towering oak, tinged with the new green of spring, Heather and I read to everyone from the psalms:

This poor man cried, 
and the Lord heard him, 
and saved him 
out of all his troubles. 
O taste and see 
that the Lord is good; 
happy are those 
who take refuge in God. 

The sparrow 
has found a home,
and the swallow 
a nest for herself, 
where she may lay 
her young.
O magnify the Lord 
with me,
let us exalt God’s name 
together.
I sought the Lord, 
and he answered me, 
and delivered me 
from all my fears.

Look to God, 
and be radiant; 
so your faces will never 
be ashamed.  

Continued...