41 The wedding

We're using a Max Lucado title in our women's group at church, "Experiencing the Heart of Jesus." On p. 77 he describes a dramatization used in his church to illustrate how we ask others, instead of Jesus, to help us with our burdens.

"A wedding is reenacted in which we hear the thoughts of the bride and groom. The groom enters, laden with luggage. A bag dangles from every appendage. And each bag is labeled: guilt, anger, arrogance, insecurities. This fellow is loaded. As he stands at the altar, the audience hears him thinking, Finally, a woman who will help me carry all my burdens. She's so strong, so stable, so . . .

As his thoughts continue, hers begin. She enters, wearing a wedding gown but, like her fiance, covered with luggage. Pulling a hanging bag, shouldering a carry-on, hauling a makeup it, paper sack--everything you could imagine and everything labeled. She has her own bags: prejudice, loneliness, disappointments. And her expectations? Listen to what she is thinking: Just a few more minutes and I've got me a man. No more counselors. No more group sessions. So long, discouragement and worry. I won't be seeing you anymore. He's going to fix me.

Finally they stand at the altar, lost in a mountain of luggage. They smile their way through the ceremony, but when given the invitation to kiss each other, they can't. How do you embrace someone if your arms are full of bags?

Lucado leaves this scene and continues, "There are certain weights in life you simply cannot carry. Your Lord is asking you to set them down and trust him. He is the father at the baggage claim [seeing the 5 year old] trying to drag the family trunk off the carousel. . .'Set it down, child. I'll carry that one.'"