Wedding Bells, Socks and Celebrations!

It is the Tuesday morning after four straight days of festivities in celebration of the marriage union between my brother and his now wife (and no longer "almost" aunt) Nathalie. Friday was a dinner and a great opportunity for the two families to come together, many of us meeting for the first time. What a great chance to see all the faces of the many people that Nathalie has told us so much about. Saturday was the rehearsal which we did as a picnic at the Toronto Island. The celebrations were growing as we added the wedding party and many friends to the festivities. Then came Sunday, the big day, as all the family, extended family and friends came together to witness, participate in and celebrate the momentous occasion. I had the honour of officiating the ceremony and was thrilled to be invited to play a role in such a special day.
As many of you know, my family has been living out our Thirty Days of Almost Nothing experiment during this month and we knew that when we started, this major celebration for our family could provide some unique challenges. We all had a role to play in the service from ushering to being the flower girl, from ring bearer to officiating as well as Kim singing with my dad and I. There was no hiding in the back corner so we would all have to look presentable! Well, for the most part I think we did quite well. In all honesty, the girls had there dresses bought months before our challenge began. The boys and I were not as proactive, however, and so had to find outfits during our month of challenge. We managed to start with what we did have and dug into our closets for our shoes shirts and ties. I also had a suit that perfectly matched the requirements of the day. The boys, however, had definitely grown a bit since the last occasion that they needed to dress up for, and being in the wedding, also needed to match the colour scheme. We took the opportunity to scour my favourite clothing outlets including The Salvation Amy Thrift Store, Goodwill and when all else fails Value Village. I love these stores, and without a word of a lie, I have an unofficial challenge to see my whole wardrobe consist of used clothing from these stores (except maybe underwear, but that is not really relevant here). For one thing, when there is a necessity to purchase something, the prices are far below regular retail. I feel like I am being a good steward of my finances. There is the added ecological bonus that when I buy something from a used clothing store, I am re-using and therefore helping to keep something out of a landfill. And lastly, in many cases, as I am buying used clothing I am also helping to support some important charities in my community. Another great thing about buying used clothing for kids is that kids grow out of clothing so fast that there is a lot of clothing available, especially for special occasions, that have only been worn once or twice and are in great condition. We were able to find suits for both the boys!
The one challenge came when we realized quite late in the week, that my one son did not have black dress socks. He had found black sweat socks that he had assumed would be fine. Kim and I has to stop and ask whether this was a necessity, and whether we should buy some proper dress socks. In reality, we new the sweat sock would be fine, would serve the purpose and that no one might even notice, and even if they did would not care in the least. On the other hand, however, this was a wedding, a very special occasion between two people that we care for deeply. We really wanted to help them make this a very special day and wouldn't new socks be the least we could do?
I found myself thinking about Jesus, and his first recorded miracle as told in John chapter 2. Jesus' first recorded miracle is the changing of the water to wine at a wedding in Cana. I recognize that this is a very deep and theologically dense passage. Consider the location, consider what the wine might signify metaphorically, consider the significance of the stone jars used in ceremonial washing, and consider the role of signs in John and there is no doubt a lot to unpack. There still, however, remains a surface level to the story and I have often been struck by this wedding scene.
Firstly, Jesus is at a wedding. Having just chosen his first disciples, he takes them not to an intense bible study, but to a wedding celebration. When the creator of the world goes to a wedding celebration I can't help but think that He considers it a worth while endeavour. The fact that he does a miracle there, so that it would for sure be recorded and remembered for posterity, only lends weight to the idea that Jesus himself considered weddings special and important. This should not surprise us as it was God himself after all who created man and woman and ordained this special relationship from early on.
Secondly, although the miracle itself had a very rich theological significance, it also had the direct impact of keeping the celebration going. When the wine ran out, the celebration had the risk of ending and ending in embarrassment. Jesus' miracle, however, kept the celebration alive. The celebration was important enough to do something special about.
With this in mind, I came to the conclusion that there are times worth celebrating, worth doing something a little bit special to mark. As someone noted in a comment a few weeks ago, there are times for feasting. Weddings are definitely one of those occasions. A pair of black dress socks, although not a definite necessity, was surely one small way we could mark this occasion as special.

By the way, the socks came in a pack and so I too wore a pair. They were made from bamboo fibre...and they were nice!

Another way the event was made special was the cake (seen above) that my aunt Coleen made...AMAZING (and it tasted great too!!!)


Thanks to everyone who has been leaving comments, e-mailing me your thoughts or posting on facebook. I love to read your thoughts. Thanks especially to all those invested in my choice of coffee I appreciate all the advice and help with choices to satisfy both my palette and my conscience.