Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Fasting Day Thirty: Fasting while the bridegroom is here

This morning Krista and I drove up to Seattle for an old friend's wedding. Actually, it's someone we met when she was just a kid... maybe eight or ten years old, the same age our kids are now! It was strange and moving to see someone we had known when she was a child getting married. Her dad was completely falling apart, of course, and I can only imagine that I will get to do that three times or so in the years to come. 

We can't go home to Seattle without a lot of memories. We parked near our old apartment above the Animal Eye Clinic, where we saw a steady stream of one-eyed puppies coming through for two years. Then, Krista and I went to lunch at the best Indian restaurant I've ever eaten at in America, Taste of India! It's actually the best Indian restaurant I've eaten at anywhere, but I figure there could be a better one in India. Maybe not, though.

Of course I couldn't eat anything, but I love that place so much that we ordered a meal for two and then we put the rest in a cooler we had cleverly brought along for precisely this reason and then lugged it around Seattle with us with the plan being to take it home and freeze it so I can eat it after the fast is over. Mmmmm, palak paneer. I don't know if that's the modern equivalent of turning rocks into bread or what, but I love me some butter chicken and palak paneer.

Krista and I also went for a walk around Green Lake (which might have been a bit much for me... I needed a nap in the car afterwards!) and then went down to U Village to buy a wedding gift and shop around a bit. 

Mmm, peanut butter banana wedding cake!
It's strange not to eat at the celebration of people you love. You can hide it a little bit by getting up to get people's drinks or something like that, but at the end of the day people notice that you're not taking part in the celebration and that's just weird. I think that's what Jesus was talking about when he said that his followers won't fast while he, the bridegroom, is with them. But when the bridegroom is gone they will fast, awaiting his return. 

We followers of Christ are waiting for the wedding feast of the Lamb. In the meantime there's some time of waiting and fasting, but a time is coming very soon when that will come to an end and we will all join in together and there will be no more fasting. In his presence, there will be no need for fasting again.... 

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