What Could Go Wrong

Well, it's over and I'm back. After weeks of planning and preparation, I thank the Lord that Alex and Selma's wedding turned out as nicely as it did. Despite my ineptness, everything ran smoothly on their Big Day. And everyone had a good time. This is important. When you're obsessing over hairdos and shoes (the groom forgot his back in China), you have to remember to enjoy. After all, a wedding is a celebration.

If you've never planned a wedding, let me tell you what it's like. Remember the episode from the old I Love Lucy series where Lucy and Ethel work in a candy factory? They're in the wrapping department and things go well for awhile. They neatly wrap each piece of candy as it comes out on the conveyor. Suddenly, the candy comes out faster. They can't keep up. They get sloppy. They chuck fistfuls into their mouths, down their blouses, under their hats.

Those are the details of a wedding. Just when you think you've got everything under control, they sneak up on you thick and fast. So many things could go wrong. The following are the unrealized fears I had, most of which were inspired by actual cliffhanger moments.

1. My volunteer decorators don't show up. I must decorate the entire church myself. It takes me the full 48 hrs. The wedding guests arrive while I'm still on the ladder (provided I haven't fallen off), draping tulle across the windows.

2. Due to high winds and rough sea, the ferryboats aren't sailing. My piano player is stranded on the island where she's been vacationing.

3. It's the morning of the wedding. I go to pick up the flowers. Posted on the flower shop door is a sign with dates, not times. The owner has decided to take an early holiday.

4. The bride is poisoned by the oleander in the homemade bouquet.

5. Unaccustomed to the very dry climate of Greece, the bride gets laryngitis. The best man is bedridden with fever.

6. The officiating pastor has a berry, berry bad head cold.

7. In transit, the baker drops the wedding cake.

8. We're experiencing a heatwave and the power goes out. No AC in church. The candles bow. People faint.

9. The unity candle topples over and ignites the decorations.

10. We and our 50 wedding guests walk into the restaurant we've reserved for the reception. Nothing is set up and there are no available tables. The usual patrons eat and gaze at us stupidly.

Details and worries. What can you do? Relax. Miraculously enough, even in our eleventh hour, the Lord delivered us skilful helpers. It was a perfect day.

So many things can go wrong--or what we deem wrong-- in our daily lives too. It's wonderful to know God is in control.

"Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:" Psalm 146:5