The Gift of Wishes

When my sister says ‘I have an idea for you’, I get a little worried. I tend to be an executor where she is a dreamer. So as soon as I hear those words, my brain starts to chug through  what I am going to need to do and when it needs to be done by.

In the last few years, several of my nieces have become engaged and our family throws a bridal shower for them. My sister builds a bride as a gift. This bride is completely comprised of useable household items and usually freestanding. Mop buckets, gardening tools, table cloths, miles of clothesline, safety pins, kitchen utensils, and bed sheets are twisted and tied to make this bride. It can take the bride over half an hour to unravel and discover all the items.

 

Well, my sister thought that these brides needed something else, and that’s when she called me.

She wanted a story to go with the bride. For her daughter’s wedding, she created the bride and the groom in a horse and carriage. Items in the carriage needed to appear in the story and she wanted it to focus on a particular Bible passage. I managed to pull together a story when the bride and groom were sent on a mission by the queen to find the woman mentioned in the Bible passage. After meeting several women from our family in the story, they learned the importance of seeking the woman.

The stories became a wish and a prayer from me for their wedding and their marriage.

And a tradition was started. For the next family weddings, the mother of the bride would read the story at the shower before the bride could unravel my sister’s bridal gift. Each story picks up details about the happy couple’s hobbies and ambitions and connects to a Bible passage that fits for them.

Everyone gets a kick out of them because they recognize people or objects in the story.

After all those bridal showers, I’m sure you can guess… we are having baby showers… and more stories. One story involved getting the baby to go out, and my niece had to collect all the items from the shower guests as the story was read. My next niece is due on Christmas, so her story involved Santa circling the globe trying to deliver the baby to the correct house. We shall see if the baby arrives on Christmas morning.

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