Village Shepherd

When Jesus visited a wedding at Cana in Galilee, he showed that human disappointments matter to him and that he would be prepared to redeem them. This is a story about a young girl's bitter disappointment when she became a bridesmaid.

Seven-year-old Claire Philips was jumping up and down in excitement. A letter had arrived that morning from a distant cousin, who was to be married in two month's time. The letter was to invite Claire to be bridesmaid. Claire had never been a bridesmaid before, but she'd always longed to be one. She'd been to three weddings, and each time had envied the young bridesmaids in their beautiful dresses and shining hairstyles.

Every night when Claire said her prayers before settling down to sleep, she prayed for the chance to be a bridesmaid. And now here it was! On March 23rd, Claire would become a bridesmaid herself. She circled the date on the kitchen calendar with red biro, and each evening crossed another day off, so that she knew exactly how many days were left.

One day, the distant cousin arrived and whisked Claire off to the dressmaker. Her bridesmaid's dress was to be a long dress made out of green velvet, and Claire thought she'd never seen anything so beautiful. The material was so lovely to touch that Claire could have stayed there all day, just stroking the velvet. She was measured and pinned and stood on chairs and fussed over until she felt quite tired. But it was that lovely, warm comfortable sort of tiredness that comes when you're really happy.

On the great day, Claire had to get up very early. Her parents drove her a long way to the distant cousin's house, and as soon as they arrived, Claire was hustled indoors.

The house was in chaos. There were two other big bridesmaids there, both worrying about spots on their faces, although Claire couldn't see any. The bride herself seemed to be in a funny kind of dream, drifting from one room to another. The bride's mother was fretting over everyone and everything. The bride's father, for some reason Claire couldn't make out, looked terrified and disappeared into a tiny room at the top of the house.

Very soon a hairdresser arrived, and Claire found her hair being washed and curled, styled with some tiny white rosebuds, and sprayed with some nasty sticky stuff that made Claire choke and made her hair feel all stiff, like a piece of cardboard. But when she looked in the mirror, she could hardly recognise herself, she looked so glamorous. Then somebody helped her into the dress, and she put on some shoes with a little heel, which felt terribly wobbly when she walked. So she sat down quietly in a corner until the photographer appeared. Someone handed her a little basket of flowers, which she had to hold in all sorts of strange positions while the photographer took pictures. Claire thought the pictures might go on forever, he took so many, but at last he was finished.

Then a big car arrived, which took the three bridesmaids and the bride's mother to the church. They had to wait for a while in the church porch, while the car went back for the bride and her father. The wait made Claire feel quite cold, and she wished they'd hurry up. But eventually the bride arrived, they all moved into position behind her and her father, and the church organ struck up some loud and glorious special wedding music. This was it, the greatest moment of Claire's life! The church was full, and everyone turned to look as the procession began its slow glide down the aisle. From all round, there were tiny gasps of appreciation and little murmurs of delight.
But to her horror, Claire discovered it was very difficult to walk in the unfamiliar shoes. She tottered a bit, and put out her hand to steady herself. She tried to smile as she'd been told. But it was hopeless. To her dismay, Claire found herself staggering and swaying, wobbling and tottering. She was used to running about in trainers, and she found it almost impossible to walk so slowly on the little heels. Then, after one particularly bad wobble, when she nearly fell, out of the corner of her eye Claire noticed a lady in the congregation smiling. The smile grew to a chuckle and the chuckle seemed to spread from one to another until it seemed to Claire as if every single person in the entire church was looking at her and roaring with laughter. Claire was so ashamed. She felt herself grow bright red, and her lip began to tremble. She knew she was going to cry.

Suddenly, she hated being a bridesmaid. Suddenly, it had all gone wrong. She longed to be at home, away from this horrible church and silly dress and stupid shoes. But most of all, she wanted her Mum. How she longed for her Mum, but she had no idea where her parents had gone when they'd dropped her at the bride's house. She assumed they'd probably gone home, she hadn't thought to ask.

She looked down at the floor and bit her lip, but the first tear escaped and ran down her face onto the green velvet, where it settled with a little mark. Claire felt desperate. They were nearly at the top of the aisle now, but she was terrified she might fall at any time. Or that she'd ruin the dress with her tears. She said a quick prayer: "Please God, help me!"

Then she risked a glance around. And to her astonishment and delight she saw her Mum and Dad, nearly in the front row. Her Mum smiled at her and winked, and looked so pleased and proud. Claire suddenly realised nobody was laughing any more. And miraculously, she was walking straight without a single wobble!

The tears dried up. Claire looked at her Mum and smiled. It had been so nearly a disaster, but somehow she knew everything would be all right now. She knew she was going to love being a bridesmaid whatever happened, and she knew it was going to be the best day of her life after all.