We waited. I was the first to arrive. The bride was the second. We waited for the groom. Others began arriving. Suddenly, we heard a siren.
It was a Tennessee state trooper, going in a direction nobody we knew would be coming from. Then an ambulance, followed by a Sherriff’s deputy.
All went in that direction where we thought we had nothing to worry about. I began taking pictures of the unique venue for a wedding, a unique wedding.
This wedding was between two friends whom I’ve ridden motorcycles with before. The three of us rode in a funeral procession a few months ago, along with dozens of others.
Where is the groom?
All at once, the same emergency vehicles came back and went a different direction, this time in the direction most of the people we knew were coming from. The bride began to call her groom’s phone, his daughter’s phone. ”He should be here by now,” she thought.
Nobody was answering.
Nobody was answering because the emergency was that the groom was in a motorcycle wreck.
Rushing to the scene
The bride left in a flash to rush to his side.
A few of the others stayed behind because they didn’t want to crowd the scene. We gathered up and prayed.
After a few minutes, I decided I might need to go to the scene and pray with people and bring God’s peace to the situation.
The groom was life-flighted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
We, his friends and I, began to take care of the belongings of the bride and groom while she left to go to the hospital to be by his side.
The first good news I had was when one of the officers told me he was awake and responsive before they flew him out.
I rode to the hospital to be there for support.
I was able to see him, talk with him and his daughter. He is going to be okay.
Unexpected change of plans
When the bride saw him, he told her he wanted to go ahead and get married. He said the wreck shouldn’t cause their marriage to be put on hold.
Seven hours after the wedding was supposed to start, that couple was married in the emergency room.
I might always refer to this as the “miracle wedding.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Jerry Jeter and originally published by Baptist and Reflector.
