The dress was breathtaking,
The bridesmaids would be exquisite,
Flowers lovely and abundant.
The days, the weeks, the months of planning were about to unfold in that magical moment she had dreamed of.
And then it happened,
The nightmare that is only supposed to occur in the movies, or to someone else, certainly not her.
He left her,
Not quite standing at the altar, but only a few days before.
He couldn’t go through with it,
A classic and devastatingly real case of “cold feet.”
And now at her most vulnerable moment, she is raw exposed.
And all of us are reading about her humiliation in the daily news feed.
But what she and her mother did in the midst of this misery is remarkable,
Made it not just another tragedy of the heart,
Made it memorable to the rest of us.
With thousands of dollars already spent–instead of calling it a total loss, they did something admirable, something newsworthy.
Instead of canceling the reception, they invited the city’s homeless to a sumptuous meal, a meal their original guests would have enjoyed, and forgotten soon after. But to their new guests, this was a feast not soon forgotten.
So they came,
The displaced families with chattering children.
The hollow eyed veterans,
The emaciated addicts,
The old and worn, shuffling as they entered.
All in awe of their opulent surroundings,
All in anticipation of something rare and special.
A first for some,
A lifeline for others,
A welcome respite from days of hardship and worry for all.
A rare gift of generosity, born of sorrow and woe.
A blessing received,
A balm to a heart splintered into a million pieces.
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Matthew 20:8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Matthew 25:40 … “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
-Jesus parable shows a generosity of spirit in the face of disappointment.
-Next time you are faced with a less than perfect or desired situation, remember that you can choose to wallow or bless someone else.