A Wedding!

We had a very special wedding in our family last week!   It was a wedding that symbolized forgiveness and lasting love.  It symbolizes the kind of love that looks beyond past hurts.  It is the kind of love that binds two people together even when things get really tough.
The special couple  that got married last week have known each other since they were children which in this case is a very long time.  The bride is 79 years old and the groom is 83.  This wedding represents a second chance for them as they were married once before.  In 1949 this twosome ran off to elope. She was Lutheran and he was Catholic and they could not be married in church.  So they drove to another state to be wed and he sang to her along the way.
This young couple raised up a family of seven children.  They worked hard and sacrificed to give their family the best.  However as happens to so many couples along the way they  made mistakes and there was a lot of hurt.  Long after their children had grown and they had many grandchildren this couple was left with each other.  Sometimes in the midst of past hurts people feel as though there can be no healing and no future.  In 1993, the once young and hopeful bride felt she had come to that place and they were divorced.
God works in mysterious ways however and sometimes he works through great pain to bring us to a place where we realize that our love for someone is stronger than our hurt and our anger.  About three and a half years ago our groom was in serious condition.  He had a clogged artery which was causing him to have strokes.  His doctor had tried several operations but was unable to complete them because the patient wasn't strong enough.  Our groom is the type of man who has been young and strong and struggles greatly with being old and weak.  His once young bride looked upon him with love and knew he needed someone to help him and care for him.  God graciously granted this couple a second chance when he finally allowed the surgery to succeed.  He has been given another opportunity to love a women who through her forgiveness has come back to unselfishly devote herself to his care.
I learned of this wedding to be only shortly before it happened and I was unable to attend because I must be here with my boys and they live faraway.  I am no less blessed by it however as these are two people I love very much.  I am grateful for this renewal of their devotion to one another.  I know it is something they almost didn't have.  I am thrilled they have each other to love until they pass from this earth.  I thank God for their story and for his wonderful gift to me- my grandparents!

 These are the pictures from last week as they were rewed in their home.