Standing on the edge about to take the plunge

With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;

I will praise Him in the midst of the throng. Psalm 109:30

Well, maybe I did extricate this psalm out of context, but my context today is a throng. Sergio and Jonelle’s throng to be precise.  In the Reid Park Rose Garden at 6:00 p.m., and in our backyard at sunset, to be precise.  And sit-down dinner tables for two hundred are set, and thousands and thousands of twinkly lights wrapped by Sergio’s kinfolk twist around every tree, and we have two brand new flamelighters for all those hundreds of candles wired around mesquite branches that are set in little concrete bases so we will be in a veritable forest of flickering flames.

And LORD this is my choice, that I will give great thanks to You; I will praise You in the midst. 

And I remember Sergio in sixth grade.  It was my first year of real teaching.  And really none of my students’ parents wanted their kids in my classroom, with the new teacher.  Everyone wanted their kids with Mr. Bowen, the coolest teacher ever, and I remember my first before-school-starts meeting with the parents, and this one family kept standing up in the middle of my forced cheeriness, saying, “Excuse me.  You don’t understand.  We are going to pull our son out of this school if he is in your class.”  And I asked them to sit down and we would talk about it after the meeting.  And we talked about it after the meeting, and Mr. Rhodes made all the staff people put their kids in my class so the paying customers could have Mr. Bowen.  And that included Brad and Michael and Sergio.  And we had the best time ever as I figured out this teaching stuff and what Bible and History and Literature looked like all rolled into one.  And we debated whether Attilia the Hun was a Christian, and we lived fifteen minutes without any rules to see if the Ten Commandments were a gift from a loving God and some of the kids ended up crawling under the desks because things were too crazy and then someone (and everyone knew who he was but we couldn’t prove it and he ended up in juvie) snuck into the room after school and shot all of the Robin Hood arrows into the classroom wall and the holes are still there when I drive by the now boarded up and abandoned building that holds so very many memories.  

And I remember when Sergio was in seventh grade and he said that he wanted to do something important with his life and maybe go to Harvard and sometimes his choices had consequences but today he is going to marry Jonelle and she is truly lovely inside and out and they are going to commit publicly in front of everyone their desire to live for You and follow You.  Together.  

And I remember after the last wedding in our backyard.  And there was a taco stand and a stageful of musicians and an after-wedding-float-in-the-pool with dozens and dozens of people because there was a full moon and it was a hundred degrees and we all so happy.  So anyways, I woke up nice and early as usual to go start sweeping and picking up broken goblets and bits of paper and ribbon and candy wrappers from the Tigger piñata.  And as I was going out the back door, Sergio was coming in.  With the Krepps brothers.  And the yard was all tidy and the chairs were stacked and they had stayed up all night as a sweet gift to me.  

 And may the entire day bring You joy and honor as we have so very many to do lists tacked up and sometimes people don’t quite follow directions and there is so much yet to be done, and boxes to be unpacked and glasses to be washed and maybe even hang the disco ball.  And Everette Tess now weighs eight pounds and today was the day I picked on the Guess Baby Schaber’s Birthday poster hanging in the living room.  And Mary Anne is supposed to come home from the hospital this morning and may You surround her with Your peace and calm and she won’t even sense the activity in her backyard that is spilling over into her porch. And then we are going to eat carne asada and Julia’s famous salsa and drink white and red wine in the garden and smash a piñata and celebrate Your goodness.

The sky is clear.  The air is fresh. And Nicole and I are going for a swim. 

And I will give You great thanks. And I will praise Your name in the throng. With my mouth, out loud.