Labor Day weekend was a happy time in the Hamlin family because of the wedding of our older son William and his fiancée—now wife!—Karen.
Of all honors to be given, they asked me to perform the ceremony. I was flattered to be asked…but struggled for a long while over what to say. How to be succinct and profound about marriage? Now there’s a challenge!
I kept thinking about a picture that was taken shortly after their engagement. They’re on a rooftop with a slew of friends and the friends are all holding them up. Lifting them, carrying them.
It occurred to me that that’s exactly what you need in a marriage, to make it last, to face the challenges, to keep your vows. In fact, that’s exactly why you have a wedding celebration with friends and family present. They’re the witnesses.
And they’re the ones to hold you up over the years. To show up at hospital beds and birthday parties, to send emails, texts, letters, prayers, to call when you’re feeling down and to laugh with you when you’re feeling up.
On a brilliant sunny day when we were all feeling up, we sang James Taylor’s “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You,” we shed some tears, we hugged, we kissed, we danced, and we ate magnificently.
And we reminded the bride and groom that we would be here from this time forth and forever more, holding them up, lifting them in our hearts and hands, the whole greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how marriage works.
Take it from a proud dad. We love you, Will and Karen, and hold you fast and close. Blessings.
