The New Groom

The new groom thumbed his new ring. He stood with his new wife in front of the communion table. We stood behind him, in a line, all eight of us, watching, praying, hoping. We all stood with him in our black tux’s, all sweated with him, all felt the beads of salty water run down our back. We all watched as he turned and smiled. Like actors in a play.

Minutes Earlier:

We stood amongst the bees, the beautiful flowers, the bird bath with the green slime; they all sat on the other side of the plants, the other side of the stage, they were all there to see him take her hand and slip that ring on her finger, that ring he sweated for summer after summer, and hear her say I do. We joked, we laughed, he turned and said he couldn’t believe this was happening, like this, with the jokes, the laughs, the sun, the friends from college who were trying to get in the front of the line, to be closer to the groom, to be more important — all to find out that the line was in reverse order, the last first, like the kingdom of heaven. Maybe that’s why God says that, maybe we go into Heaven in a line that’s reversed…

~ by kevinthomas on August 31, 2006.