*Five Minute Friday is an initiative set up by Lisa-Jo Baker over at Surprised by Motherhood. It has now been taken over by Kate over at Heading Home. The basic premise is to take the word Kate gives and write, non-stop for 5 minutes. Then you stop and post. Read more about it here. This October, I am taking part in a series based on this called “31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes”, in which we commit to writing from the prompt as usual, but everyday rather than just on a Friday. Read more here.
Purple
GO
The colours of our wedding were white and purple. I remember watching the bridesmaids walk in front of me in bright lilac dresses as I stood with my father in the entrance hall to the church, my heart beating fast in my chest. And yet I was so peaceful. More peaceful than I think I have ever been in my life.
I remember the joy that seeped out of me, that I could not contain as I walked, perhaps a little quicker than I meant to in my anticipation. Maybe that is why brides are always so beautiful – the joy and the knowledge of love and security in their hearts pours out of every inch of them, infecting those nearby.
I remember looking on the cross that hung over the altar, the beautiful smiling image of the resurrected Christ, and I felt for a moment like I truly understood, at last, the way marriage images Christ and His Church. As I walked, I knew He, too, was my Bridegroom.
I remember holding your hand, my husband, as both of us smiled through tears, thinking of all we had been through in our relatively short relationship to this point that had brought us here. Echoes of the joys and difficulties to come, preparing us and shaping us into better spouses, better Christians, better people.
A huge crowd of friends and family watched us as we promised to love each other no matter what, and I remember placing a ring on your finger in the name of the God who we both loved so much, the One who had brought us together – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The day passed by more quickly than any other day of my life, and in a blur of white and purple and joy and laughter, I realised I was married to my best friend.
My heart sang with joy, the Church danced with purple.
And that white, that purple, that joy and peace, remains to this day.
“For better, for worse”, my darling, I’m in it forever.
STOP
