CRASH, BANG, WALLOP

Yesterday I was beginning to feel that I had just got over jet-lag when a wedding interrupted my recovery. I'm not moaning about the wedding it was brilliant but getting home at 1.00am after dancing (well, stumbling) the night away has played havoc with my sleep patterns again. (9 o'clock with a mug of Ovaltine is more my style!)

But it was a great day of celebration. The wedding was between my niece Nicole and Henry and happened at Christ Church in Westbourne - Nicole's home church. It was great to get together with my family and to meet Henry's family and to enjoy the mystery of marriage and reflect on how God brings people into relationship. They smiled all day - apart from a few moments when Henry cried - and it was clear that they felt God's pleasure in what they had decided to do.

The story of how they met each other is a series of amazing coincidences. In the same place at the right time through independent decisions to accept invitations to a Christian Union small group at Birmingham University. It is a mystery, but it happens to us all.

It's a little like the mystery of the Céilidh (is that just a posh name for a barn dance?) we had for the evening celebration. Once you pluck up the courage of getting onto the dance floor - or you can't escape the vice like grip of your wife - you are at the mercy of your partner, the instructions from the caller and the other 'dancers' around you. We hadn't met one another before but now we found ourselves on the same floor committed to moving together and enriching each others lives so that together we had more fun than if it was a solo performance. It can be a dangerous place to be because if you don't know your left from your right - I do struggle with that - then you are in grave danger of a kicked shin, a stamped on toe or three falls, a submission or a knock out.

Every moment on the floor you can choose do your own thing or you can listen to the caller and obey his instructions. If everyone else does the same thing then that leads to harmony and enjoyment rather than crash, bang, wallop - what a picture!

It seems that life can be much the same. We are free to choose to do our own thing but listening to the caller and realising that your decision to go left instead of right affects others will lead to a great dance rather than finding blood on the dance floor.

It was a great day, what a picture Nicole and Henry were, and I learnt a lesson. As I get ready to go out to Hong Kong on Monday I'm keeping my ears open to the caller so that I can move in the right direction and be part of the dance of life that enriches the lives of others so that together we can all move in harmony, celebrate life and have a whole lot of fun. What a picture it will be.