Wedding Jitters

A dear friend-of-mine's daughter got engaged on Christmas day.
As I learned about it, tears came to my eyes visualizing the picture he painted of the moment...

"Eric came to our house at 4:30am Christmas morning with his parents. I got Chelle out of bed and told her there was a surprise under the tree that couldn't be wrapped and she would have to come out with her eyes closed. I covered her eyes and walked her right in front of Eric who was on one knee in front of the tree and then uncovered her eyes...
the rest is, as they say, history."

So then the anticipated 'will you' and the expected 'yes', but I don't think every proposal ends like this one...

"Eric's parents, my wife, her mother, my son, and I then
gathered around them and prayed for them." What a beautiful picture of what God had in mind for marriage. Two families truly coming together in love under 1 roof...God's.

Well, that certainly wasn't the last time I saw God through this family...
A few weeks later, they asked me to be the photographer for their wedding. Me. They knew my skill level. They knew my lack of experience. I have never photographed a wedding or a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g of that magnitude before. A wedding is the one day that many people consider to be the most important and most memorable day of their entire life. No pressure.
Immediately, two things happened:

1. I knew that I was supposed to do it. Period. I knew God had called me to lay down my anxiety and perfectionism and excuses, and just trust, blindly trust, that He would take care of this. I knew that might even mean that this couple got bad wedding photos...and somehow I had to live with that.


2. I thought of plenty of reasons why they shouldn't use me. I listed a few shortcomings for my friend, but I knew he already knew them and we BOTH knew that it didn't matter. God's hand WAS in this.

So, I had a bit of a sick, panicky feeling, but at the same time, there was a giddiness in knowing I was on new journey, a journey God had selected specifically for me.

Until the actual day, I battled back and forth between those feelings, and asked friends to pray for me specifically the week and the day just before.

So...did I take the perfect pictures, each with great lighting, the perfect setting, and a steady hand? NO! (especially not all the formal ones) But it was perfect in another way. I trusted in God enough to allow His version of perfect be in effect that day over mine. He showed me an example of two loving families coming together, where Christ is truly the foundation. (I do think it takes a village, but that foundation is the key, I think.)

And just by saying yes to something that wasn't comfortable at all to me, my faith grew, my gifts served a dear friend, and I got to know God a little better that day.