Monday Rich and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. This past week we watched, The Beatles: Get Back. I want to write a future post about watching that documentary series of their recording sessions and final concert, but that is for another time. So much struck me in the documentary, but for today, the song that has stuck with me for days is, Two of Us; I could rewrite every line in that song about Rich and me, but the line that speaks to me at this moment is, “You and I have memories Longer than the road that stretched out ahead.” It speaks to me because I believe we have more time behind us than in front of us. Now, that thought may seem depressingly morbid, but it helps me reflect on what is most important in my life.
Miracles
Advent is one of my favorite times of the year. I love to reflect on all the ways God miraculously sent messages after four hundred years of silence. Angels appeared to priests, peasant girls, older women, and shepherds. A star guided the Babylonian worship team (thank you, Ray Bakke) from the East all the way to meet the Holy Family. God was again speaking to the People of God, fulfilling what had been spoken so long ago. There were all sorts of people hearing from and responding to God’s invitations. I believe in miracles. I have experienced too many not to be a believer. The truth is I met Rich through what I believe to be miraculous circumstances. A word that came in prayer seven months before he came into my life—a whirlwind courtship and then a wedding.
Weddings
“There are two kinds of people – Greeks and everyone else who wish they was Greek.” Gus
If you have seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you have seen a bit of my big fat Italian family. Rich and my wedding did not disappoint. Our family and friends decorated. Champagne and wine were flowing. The atmosphere was electric with white Christmas lights, the classical guitarist playing, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, as I walked in. Rich met most of my family for the first time at our wedding. Picture this. My little Italian aunties come up to meet him. Rich is 6”2, and they are at the most 4”11; he bends over to shake their hands; they grab his neck, kiss him and say to him, “We are sooooo happy, you have no idea, we never thought she would get married.” I kid you not; they were thrilled for me.
Our wedding holds so many memories for me. It was the last time I was together with my mom and dad (who were divorced) and my four siblings. It was the last time Rich’s five kids were all together before we lost Ben. Rich and I have a blended family with eight children between us. We have twenty-two grandchildren. We have shared memories beyond what I ever could have imagined—the birth of our son together and the birth of our most gorgeous grandchildren. We have traveled the world to places I only dreamed I would one day see. Today, as I close this post, as is my practice, I give God all the praise and thanksgiving I can muster for God’s goodness to me. Amen
