A quartet of violins began to play Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. His pastor popped his head in the side door and whispered, “It’s time.”
Bennett nodded and closed his eyes for a moment. He took a deep breath, and told himself to relax. He had nothing to worry about. Not anymore. Erin loved him as he’d never imagined someone could. She was as eager to marry him as he was to marry her. This was the first day of the rest of their lives, and it was going to be better than they had ever hoped for, dreamed of, or imagined. What more could he ask for than this?
3
The doors opened with a rush and everyone stood.
Erin McCoy felt every eye upon her, and for a moment she wished she and Jon had just eloped. She was so grateful for all the family and friends who had come out for the ceremony. She needed their support and she appreciated it. But for months she and Jon had been in the glare of the public eye, and it was beginning to wear thin.
Their escape from Russia had been big news. Upon their return, they had been invited to the White House to meet with the president and First Lady. Together they had held a press conference to announce massive U.S. humanitarian aid and logistical support to all affected countries. They had been interviewed on every major news show in the U.S. and Europe and had even appeared on Al-Jazeera. Newsweek had put them on its cover. So had People and The Economist and numerous Asian and Latin-American newsmagazines.
At times Bennett and McCoy wondered if they should have just said no right from the beginning. They didn’t want the spotlight. They didn’t want fame and publicity. They didn’t need the perks those came with, and they certainly didn’t need the headaches. But it was true they had a compelling story to tell. They had a unique perspective on the horrifying events through which the world was suffering, as well as a powerful message of hope to share with millions without hope. It would have been wrong to keep silent.
But now McCoy desperately craved some privacy. It was why she had asked the president and First Lady and their daughters not to attend today’s wedding. Not because she didn’t love them. She did. Not because of tensions over the president’s refusal to come to Israel’s aid prior to the firestorm, though that’s what the tabloids were reporting. The reason was simply this: welcoming the First Family to their wedding meant welcoming the entire White House press corps, and at the moment Erin couldn’t think of anything worse.
Still, it pained her not to have the MacPhersons there. After the death of her father in Afghanistan in the eighties and the loss of her mother to ovarian cancer in the early nineties, the MacPhersons had practically become her adopted family. They had helped her through school, given her a place to stay, and supported her when she joined the CIA as her father had so many years before. They had even been responsible for introducing her to Jon in the first place.
McCoy had imagined the president walking her down the aisle one day and the girls serving as bridesmaids. She had cried herself to sleep the night before calling Julie MacPherson and asking her not to come. It had been the most difficult phone call she had ever made, but as best as she could see it, she didn’t have a choice.
Fortunately, though the First Lady had sounded hurt, she and the president had been very gracious. They would give Erin and Jon the space they needed, and they would ask the media to do the same. They just asked that the Bennetts join them for a weekend at Camp David sometime after the honeymoon so they could properly congratulate them and try to heal the fresh wounds. McCoy had eagerly accepted, without even asking Bennett. He knew how important this relationship was to her, and just as she had hoped, he had backed her fully when she told him, his own strained relationship with the president notwithstanding.
And now here she was, walking down the aisle. With a single red rose in her hand and Dr. Mordechai at her side, McCoy tried hard to keep step with the music and keep from crying before the man she so loved and admired. She didn’t want Bennett to think of her as weak or sentimental. She wanted to be a rock for him, like her mother had been for her dad. But then her eyes locked onto his. She saw them filling with tears. She saw his lip beginning to quiver. She could see him straining to hold it all back, and every fear she’d had that maybe this was all a little girl’s fairy tale melted away.
Jon Bennett really did love her. This really was happening.
But why? How was it possible that God was being so good to her? Almost everyone she had ever loved had died terrible, premature deaths, and she couldn’t help but fear Jon would be next. How could she love someone she barely expected to last in her life? And yet, how could she not? God in His graciousness had given her the gift she had always wanted. She’d done nothing to deserve it. She could do nothing to hold on to it. She would just have to trust — to “HALO jump,” as Bennett liked to put it — and enjoy every day the Lord in His infinite love and mercy chose to give her.
It wouldn’t be easy, but what in her life ever had been?
Erin was suddenly at his side.
She took his hand, and the pastor began to speak.
“Welcome, all of you, in the name of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave Himself for us. I cannot tell you how much I’ve looked forward to this moment, though I suspect that my anticipation pales to that of the two lovesick children who stand before us.”
A chuckle rippled through the room.
“Let us, therefore, not put off the purpose for which we have gathered: to witness and to celebrate the sacred union of these two dear friends in the bonds of holy matrimony. Two friends whose love and faith have literally been tested by fire. Two friends who have come to exemplify the words of our precious Savior, when He said, ‘Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.’”
Bennett had no doubt that whatever the pastor said next was what Mordechai called “VOSA,” the voice of sound advice. But he heard none of it. Not the admonition to love Erin as Christ loved His church. Not the humorous anecdotes of the pastor’s first married mistakes. Not the gentle but clear call to faith. It was all a dreamy fog, until these words snapped him back into reality.
“Jonathan Meyers Bennett, in the sight of God and man, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife — to have and to hold, for richer or for poorer, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, from this day forward, for as long as you both shall live?”
Bennett felt the lump form in his throat and a tingling sensation in his fingers. As he watched the tears streaming down Erin’s face, he managed a firm, “I do.”
And then it was her turn.
“Erin Christina McCoy, in the sight of God and man, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband — to have and to hold, for richer or for poorer, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, from this day forward, for as long as you both shall live?”
Bennett’s heart skipped a beat until he heard those precious, wonderful words—“I do”—emerge in that ever-so-slight North Carolinian accent. And then he could breathe again.
“Do you each bring a token of your love and affection for one another?”
“We do,” they said together.