Love at the beginning and the end

I attended both a wedding and a funeral this weekend. Wedding on Saturday. Funeral on Sunday.
Both ceremonies were emotional. One joy-filled, the other deeply sad.
That's why I found it interesting that these two life events shared the same passage of Scripture. (One that happened to be read at my wedding as well).
It is I Corinthians 13:1-13. In case you do not know the words here they are. Some of the most poetic words in the Bible

If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a tinkling symbol.
And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
And if I dole out all my goods, and if I deliver my body that I may boast but have not love, nothing I am profited.
Love is long suffering, love is kind, it is not jealous, love does not boast, it is not inflated.
It is not discourteous, it is not selfish, it is not irritable, it does not enumerate the evil.It does not rejoice over the wrong, but rejoices in the truth
It covers all things, it has faith for all things, it hopes in all things, it endures in all things.
Love never falls in ruins; but whether prophecies, they will be abolished; or tongues, they will cease; or knowledge, it will be superseded.
For we know in part and we prophecy in part.
But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will be superseded.
When I was an infant, I spoke as an infant, I reckoned as an infant;
when I became [an adult], I abolished the things of the infant.
For now we see through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know as also I was fully known.
But now remains faith, hope, love,
these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

Love was the centerpiece of both ceremonies.
Scott and Danielle looked like a fairy tale princess and her prince. Beautiful and handsome, so filled with love that it overflowed the sanctuary. When the ceremony finally ended (it lasted an hour - I told them that I could have been married four times in the time it took them to get hitched once) and they walked up the aisle, I finally relaxed my face muscles. I had been grinning happily the whole time. So much so that my face ached.
The couple served communion to those who wanted to partake which I thought was a particularly touching act on their part. How much closer can the average attendee get to the bride and groom during the ceremony? I resisted the urge to squeeze them both.
I work with Scott, the groom. A tall, handsome fellow, he is a graphic artist or designer who is deeply talented, smart and funny. His best man also is member of our three-person marketing team at work and is equally talented, smart and funny. We usually have quite a good time. Cindy and the boys. Or maybe its the guys and the old lady. I don't know. I do know that working with them has opened my eyes on many levels. So I was happy to be able to share this "event" with them.
The second event was not as joyful. The funeral of Hank - a man who worked for me when I ran the local weekly newspaper - was sad, but sweetly sad. Hank was a wonderful man. You know those people you meet who seem to glow from the inside out? People you identify immediately as good. Hank was one of those people. And his wife Mary is the same way.
They took very good care of each other, tending their marriage like it was the only garden where they could grow food to sustain them. But they did not keep their love to themselves - they shared it with their family, friends, community - the world.
Hank was 81 when he died last week. In December of last year he traveled down south to help rebuild a home damaged by Katrina. Can you imagine?
I can hear Mary calling him darling and I see him looking over his glasses that were always either perched on the end of his nose or dangling by a chord around his neck.
Mary has been treated recently for cancer. In fact, she got sick before he did. They found his after hers.
When I leaned in and kissed Mary at the funeral, I told her how sorry I was and how I thought it was such a sad ending to such a beautiful love story.
"I know, I know," she said to me as she patted me on the arm. "I love you."
For such a tiny word, love is so complicated.
Nothing inspires me the way love does. I was so moved by these two ceremonies - I feel deeply affected by them. In fact, I have continued to think about them and explore in my mind what I witnessed.
But now remains faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.