Marriage Takes Two Steps Forward

I can still recount every detail of the moment I stood with my son and watched my soon-to-be daughter-in-law walk down the aisle in all of her wedding day spendor.  I turned my head slightly to make sure I didn't miss the look on his face when she stepped into the sanctuary door on her father's arm.  His look is fixed in my mind.  It was a look filled with a lifetime of love, capture in a single moment.  I was immediatly transported back to that very same moment when I saw his mother step through another sanctuary door.  After 26 years of marriage and three children, she still takes my breath away.

Among all the joys that come to a minister of the Gospel perhaps there are two that eclipse all others.  I have had the honor of baptizing all three of my children and I have now had the honor of standing before my son and his bride as they repeated after me a promise they were making to God.  The old beer commericals just never quite captured the right moment when they used to trumpet "it doesn't get any better than this" after a day of fishing or a sunset on a barbeque.  Trust me....it truly doesn't get any better than hearing your son pledge his love to a young woman I would have hand picked to be his wife. 

And yet, I was beginning to wonder....would I have the same opportunity