Joyful Marriage

Have you seen the latest hit on You Tube? Like rest of the world, I just heard about this thing this week. It's a couple from Minnesota who did something a little different for the beginning of their wedding - I'll go into that in a bit here. If I was more computer savvy I'd have a link or even a picture for you here that would take you directly to the video. But I'm not, so you'll have to find it on your own. Chances are, somebody has already emailed you the link, though. Over 4 million people have viewed it and doubtless, you have too, or know somebody who has since sent you the link saying, "Watch this!" The title of it is "JK Wedding Entrance Dance" if you still want to find it, though.

A couple from Minnesota got married sometime recently. Instead of entering the church in a staid, formal processional, the entire wedding party, including the bride and groom, danced down the aisle and in front of the church to a song by Chris Brown. They posted the video on YouTube and now everyone is watching it. I even saw it on our local news last night and this morning they had the wedding party re-creating their dance for the Today Show while showing clips from the actual wedding on the other side of the tv screen. It's their 15 minutes of fame, that's for sure!

So what, if anything, should we think about this? I had a friend comment that it is not appropriate for a wedding and there is a part of me that agrees. Weddings are serious business.
Aside from salvation, getting married is the biggest and most solemn decision of one's life. It's not a joke and should not be entered into frivolously. I have been to too many weddings where the emphasis was clearly on the reception and not the ceremony. The churches were hardly decorated and the ceremonies seemed rushed and kind of tacky, in my opinion (yes, holding each other's hands while a country singer croons out of a boombox on stage about how God meant for the two of you to be together is tacky - and yes, that happened at a wedding I attended!). Attending a wedding in blue jeans is not appropriate but I see that more and more. The seriousness is just not often found anymore. And then once you go to the reception you generally see why - it's just a big party. That said, though, I have attended weddings where the proper decorum was evidenced and yet the couples ended up divorcing down the road. All the solemnity in the world wasn't enough to keep them married.

I have watched this video several times now and each time it just makes me smile. I love the joy! The song is kind of cool, too. I have no idea what the words are since my broken ears aren't so good at distinguishing words when they are said or sung fast. I just caught something about "having one life" and then "double your pleasure, double your fun" which I'm pretty sure was ripped off from the Doublemint gum commercials. But the melody is very catchy and enjoyable. It is so neat to watch the fun and enthusiasm with which the couple's friends cavort down the aisle as if they are announcing the imminent nuptials . And then the groom somersaults into the church and you know something big is about to happen! They all make their way to the front of the church and then all eyes go to the back of the church as the bride begins her gyrations down the aisle. She's laughing and so obviously joyful that she's about to be married. And then I think the sweetest part is when her groom meets her partway up the aisle, links arms with her, and the two of them sway to the front to be joined in matrimony.

The couple's names are Jill and Kevin. My hope for them is that they retain the joy from their wedding for all their married life. They don't know the curve balls life is going to throw them and how much their marriage will be tested. One day soon they will discover that their spouse can't meet all their emotional needs. They'll hurt each other. Deeply. Oh, there will be times of great happiness - the ride wouldn't be worth it if there weren't. But life isn't always fun and things are going to happen in marriage that are going to test it. Trust me. But if Jill and Kevin can hang onto the joy they started with, then they'll be fine. It's smiling when your spouse was late - again. It's holding her when she cries. It's being supportive when he loses his job and you're so scared you can't think straight. It's getting up together in the middle of the night to clean up a sick child and remake his bed. It's vacations and Christmases and funerals and job changes and money struggles, mini-vans, yard work, graduations. It's weathering it all together and knowing that in the end, you'd do it all over again with the same person.

Hang onto that joy and may you always dance through life together!