Due to several converging items, our weekend stretched into five days, beginning Thursday with our daughter’s graduation from college and culminating Monday with a picnic celebrating our thirtieth (30) wedding anniversary. In between there was a lot of work, dental considerations, and renewal of our vows at services on Sunday. I was glad to get back to work on Tuesday and have a break… 😉
This past weekend was a time of transitions. It took her a long time, but our daughter finally completed her degree in graphic design. There are milestones in life that change everything going forward and getting a degree in your chosen field is one of those moments. While some people are able to complete their course of study in one continuous sweep, others, due to changes such as shifting their area of focus (she started out a math teacher, switched to interior design and finally settled into a juried program in graphic design), take longer to reach their goal. In those that take an extended period to get their degree, what often stands out is their perseverance. You have to really stick to your goal to keep going over ten years of changes, challenges, and the overcoming of numerous obstacles. Whatever God holds for our Sarah’s future, she has a good handle on the determination and steadfast doggedness needed to see a difficult project to completion, which often includes what God is working to accomplish in our lives.
Our marriage rededication had its own special moments. I have always been big on symbolism and there were two especially symbolic moments. A short while after we were married, I disposed of a pair of my wife’s tattered, hole in the sole loafers, without telling her. It was a serious mistake and even though she claimed to have gotten past the incident, it kept coming back into discussions over the years. On Sunday she gave me a pair of her loafers, symbolically putting the incident forever behind us.
The other moment of symbolism was related to a current theme our church has been working through in relation to death, ashes and resurrection. I wrote up a statement that we both agreed upon, putting to bed the past and committing ourselves to starting anew at this special moment. It is included below. After reading it, our pastor burned the vellum it was printed on using an altar candle and then blessed our vows with the ashes, a true symbolic rebirth for our marriage.
We, Bill and Anna Marie Meisheid, for the rededication of our marriage, on the occasion of its thirtieth (30) anniversary, make the following offering: we, by Gods grace, put all of the wood, hay and stubble of our past failures, as well as the gold, silver, and precious gems of the thirty years of our marriage into the purifying fire of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to burn away the dross and to refine the good into the better and best of his will for our lives, so that it will become the sure foundation of the remaining years Our Lord has given us together. Accept our offering, Dear Lord.
A dear friend, who is an exceptional violinist, having both graduated and taught at Peabody in Baltimore, came with her family and added the joy of her sweet strings to the service. It was a special gift for a special time.
We had a picnic at our house on Monday, which gave us a good reason to get everything cleaned up. Don’t we all need those incentives once in a while. It also gave me an excuse to get a power washer, which came in handy getting the outside all tidied up. The joke about men and their tools fits me to a tee. I decided to go for the more powerful model and was glad I did. More power…
All in all it was a wonderful, if exhausting weekend. It was all about family and friends and transitions, filled with blessings and the centrality of our faith and commitments. I thank God for my wife, my daughter, and all those who were able to share these special moments. I look back and have an experiential understanding of why God was able to say, as he finished creation, “It is good.” I look back on the past few days and in my own small way feel the same. It is good.
Grace and peace.
