This is the Day the Lord Has Made!
We heard it over and over again .... “Best Wedding Day Ever!!” That’s a somewhat ironic and unexpected description considering the fact that the beautiful outdoor mountain wedding included rain, hail, sleet, snow and freezing temperatures. The night before, a record-setting eight inches of hail fell in Colorado Springs, slowing traffic and requiring snow plows to clear the interstates. Did I mention that all this crazy weather occurred just two weeks ago in May as our son David married the love of his life, Danielle?
To further enhance the drama of the day, our cell phones were going off constantly with severe weather alerts: flash floods and tornado warnings. Seriously!?
As the morning of May 9th dawned cold, rainy and cloudy, I received a text from the bride informing me she was purchasing rain galoshes for the outdoor ceremony and a rug so her beautiful lace wedding dress wouldn’t be resting in the mud.
That morning, as one of my sisters prayed for the rain to stop, the storm calmed and she felt God’s peace permeate her heart. The exact same thing was experienced by Danielle as she had prayed an hour earlier. Surely, beautiful weather was God’s plan for the day! We all had faith that our God could easily part the clouds! I had even witnessed a similar miracle at the wedding of my dear friend’s daughter and watched as the rain stopped, the clouds dispersed and a rainbow painted the heavens with brilliance. So on David and Danielle’s wedding day, as sunshine broke through the clouds in the morning, we expected all our prayers for clear weather were being answered.
But as my husband and I drove to the wedding site, with a torrential rain and hailstorm raging around us, I shook my head in disbelief. Lee however remained full of joy. Just that morning he had read of Jesus singing hymns with his disciples following the Last Supper as they walked to the Garden of Gethsemane. Although Jesus knew he was facing the cross, one of the verses he probably led his disciples to sing was “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Unbelievable peace penetrated Lee’s heart and mine as he began to sing the song he sang to me on our wedding day twenty-nine years earlier, “This is the day the Lord has made and I’m so glad he made you…”
God further emblazoned the day with this God-ordained theme when Lee asked the event center coordinator what she thought of the crazy weather. Without any knowledge of our discussions, she replied, “This is the day the Lord has made.”
Danielle rocked the wedding aisle with her beautiful dress accented with newly-purchased black rain galoshes. The fog-encased mountain backdrop framed her beauty with God’s creation beauty and supernatural JOY ruled every aspect of the wedding and reception. Danielle looked beyond the rain-soaked decorations she had spent hours creating and crafting into the eyes of the man God had chosen for her since before the beginning of time. She could have complained. Instead she celebrated!
As the evening progressed, thick heavy snow began to fall! Believe it or not – snow on her wedding day was a dream come true for Danielle! Best Wedding Day EVER!
In 1 Thessalonians 5:16 we are told to, “Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” God honors those who by faith continue to trust in his goodness and believe in his love regardless of the storms of life. May our days be filled with rejoicing rather than regrets. May celebrations of God’s presence silence our complaints. And may we look beyond our unexpected and unplanned storms into the eyes of the One who holds every storm in his good and loving hands.
