Did I Hear a Wedding Bell Ring?
“Marry and have sons and daughters: find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage. So that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there: do not decrease.” Jeremiah 29:6 (NIV)
For the past couple of weeks I have attended quite a number of weddings. In other words I have stood witness to the most highly valued institution called marriage. Without fear of contradiction, I realized it is the bell that calls the congregation to order that the most important part of the ceremony is here. It is that bell that I am writing about today.
Bells are synonymous with order. Right from school, it is the bell that ran the school programs. Without the bell, we could not go for lunch even if it was clearly past 2 O’clock. I remember an instant where “we” had grown tired of waking up early in the morning just after reopening from half terms or holidays and we decided it won’t be so any longer. “We” stole the bell. I was not part of the mysterious disappearance but I should say I enjoyed the drama and sleep somehow back then.
The bell is giant symbol just like the Judge’s hammer. You have to give it the respect it deserves or be accountable for breaking the rules. You can only be safe if the hammer gets lost mysteriously immediately before the judgment. If the verdict was that you be hanged, you will have a few more minutes to live before another hammer arrives. Not so for weddings I tell you.
When a bell rings in a wedding scenario, it announces the arrival of the bride. The bride and groom have to know that the dreaded moment has finally reached.
The bell. That is my point. If you have not attended a wedding where the bell rings, try one I tell you. You will realize the bell commands and communicates authoritatively to each and every individual in the congregation in as much as it does to the couples to be.
That bell; when it rings, there is part of the audience who feel disgusted by its sound. Like why must it sound so many times and in close succession? Perhaps the bell girl walks slowly and hence the bell gets to ring longer. Some people are left to wonder like why all that noise, it makes the ceremony a hullabaloo for no reasons. Those are my thoughts though.

Then there is part of the audience who feel like the bell is talking to them. “She is coming! She is coming!” makes some people feel like this was supposed to be them. Their event. What a lovely and beautiful unveiling of the wedding manenos. It thus inspires a real yearn in them to walk down the same path of succession in building their families.
Finally there is a group of people who ask themselves; am I past the age? How many bells have rang to my ears this far? Seems like each one more bell rings to me deep down the veins to remind me that I need really to think deep.
This adds misery to them in remembering the chain of heart breaks and the many times they have been turned down. They ask themselves one more time, am I not good enough or what is the problem with me? The next one ought to have been mine.
For me though, every time I hear the bell ring, it reminds me that there still lies sanctity in the institution called marriage. Despite the many people who are skeptics about marriage, I find every reason to smile when I hear the bell ring. That there are still people who believe in marriage is glamorous.
The ringing reminds me yet still of an opportunity to show and share our love freely. Why celebrate the love if you can? Because marriage gives us an opportunity to love another person in a limitless manner. Marriage gives us another opportunity to thus share our love. We share it with our partner and a whole generation to come after – children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. The bell rings and wakes us up to a whole generation to come in our name.
Every time the bell rings, it gives me a chance to just take my life like the groom and the bride. One thing is for sure in all this custom. That when the bell rings, it is their moment only. The people are at a distant even though they are within and in numbers. The bride and groom see each other only and by extension a small group of the people closest to them at that moment.
This teaches me that I should get focused a lot. Everything else should be a cheer to cheer me on. There is something to do with focus; once you lose sight of it, you might end up losing an opportunity of a lifetime.
So that bell that rings is more than a bell to call the audience to order. It has a whole pack of information to teach us. The bell stands as a symbol for the significance and value we draw out of marriage.
So did I hear a wedding bell ring? Oh yeah! I heard it ring down the aisle but then I heard it as a marriage bell. The marriage serves me better than the ring for the moment and announcement. The marriage is a lifetime thing and needs many bells to keep it in order. That is the marriage – by extension – wedding bell.
Copyright @ 2017.