A Second Look at a Remarkable Entrance

I had heard about the wedding entrance at the Kevin Heinz-Jill Peterson wedding in Minnesota that had popped up on YouTube this past week. So, I watched it. Immediately, I thought it inappropriate. I was not familiar with the song and I thought that the dancing was a bit over the top. I thought of all of the couples that will try their own version so that they can get onto YouTube and get their fifteen minutes.
And then a strange thing happened - I watched the video again, and again and again. It was not until about the third or fourth time through that I realized what it was that kept me coming back. The sense of sheer joy that permeated the whole event is undeniable. Watch the video and look at the faces of everyone in the wedding party, the members of the congregation and even the pastor, God bless her open and welcoming heart. Several biblical images now come to mind whenever I watch that video. A few weeks ago the lectionary included a reading where David danced, half naked, before the ark. He danced with pure joy and devotion to God, for he felt that he had done a good thing by bringing to ark to Jerusalem. And today, when I watched the video and observed the section where the whole wedding party reassembled in the back of the church and came down the aisle together, in a processional that reminded me for all of the world of the biblical description of Palm Sunday, I was moved again. Follow that with a joyous bride hardly able to control her happiness as she boogies down the aisle and I ask, how could God not be smiling? The youth and vitality and sheer happiness of those involved in the dance is inspiring and will assure that the knock-offs that are bound to appear on YouTube soon will be faint copies at best. Jill and Kevin, may the joy and sheer exuberance of your wedding entrance remain a part of your married life always.