Who Gives This Woman to Be Married To This Man?
Who gives this woman to be married to this man?
In our independent and individualist culture, this question, usually asked in some version at a wedding ceremony, barely gets a second thought. The question has faded in significance to symbolism and tradition.
Who gives this woman to be married to this man?
In about a week, our daughter will be getting married. She will walk down an aisle of trees on the arm of her dad and at the end of that aisle, under canopying branches, her dad will take her hand and place it in the hand of her soon-to-be husband.
Who gives this woman to be married to this man?
In that moment,
in that changing-hands moment,
we parents will entrust her beauty to another,
a beauty we have carried, loved,
prayed over on sick days,
whispered comfort on bad-dream nights,
nurtured and cherished,
even as an awkward teenager,
for twenty-three years,
until now.
age 7
In that moment
it will be impossible,
as her parents,
not to look back and remember the just-bud beauty of a young girl
who stood beside our orange tree in the backyard,
who swirled and twirled before a camera lens
as her white skirt danced in light and shadow
and her heart asked, "Am I pretty? Am I beautiful?"
In that moment
she will have eyes for one man,
a man who is enthralled with her beauty,
her beauty that is now,
and when he takes her hand from the hand of her dad,
he accepts the responsibility of the beauty that has shaped her,
a beauty she has kept for him,
a beauty we gladly now give.
In that moment
together
the bride and groom will join hands and face the future of a beauty that is yet to be,
two lives becoming one.
Who gives this woman to be married to this man?
We do.
____________________________The questions asked in the heart of a young girl are wonderfully written about in the book Captivating by Stasi Eldredge.