He felt supremely privileged to have been invited to lead worship at Llinos's wedding.* It is always a privilege to lead people in sung worship, of course, and always a joy to be included in someone's wedding plans and this was further compounded by how perfect for each other Llinos and her fiancée seemed. Both of them were so fun and silly and warm-hearted and God-centred and gifted and so obviously deeply in love with each other. He had known Llinos since childhood and - though she had one of the brightest smiles he knew which was so frequently demonstrated - he had never seen her light up the way she did when she was with Faith.
And now he was afforded to stand at the front of church watching over Faith's shoulder as Llinos walked slowly down the aisle towards her, giggling somewhat with the embarrassment of finding every eye in the room fixed on her but with her own gaze firmly locked on the woman she loved. He was so wrapped up in thoughts of how beautiful they both looked and how blessed they each were to have found someone who loved them that much that he nearly missed the pastor's cue for the time of sung worship to start.
Glancing down at the setlist he remembered the meeting he had had with the couple to decide on it and how vehemently Faith had championed the opening song. He signalled to the drummer, listened for those four clicks behind him and launched into the introduction. Catching Faith's eye, they shared a momentary conspiratorial smile as with the whole congregation they lifted their voices in praise to the Lord.
Something he had learnt about worship leading was that, assuming a basic level of competence, how well it went had very little to do with how well he sang or played. Worship can only be a reflection of the hearts of the congregation and the state of their relationships with the Lord. In that sense you can never really lead, merely point out the direction in which you are headed and encourage people to take a similar path. Looking round the room, however, he saw a great outpouring of praise and, possibly more than he ever had, felt that he was helping to bring people close to God. Humbled, he stopped singing and just allowed this choir of the couple's family, friends and loved ones to raise his heart.
Truly this marriage was blessed and would be lived out in shared relationship with God and he felt privileged to have played some tiny part in it.
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* The actual subject of the dream was a real person I know, but since she has never actually given me any indication of being gay (not that I've ever asked), her name has been changed and other details kept vague. For the record, this is not because I feel calling her gay would be in any way an insult and, as I hope this piece shows, I would love her no more or less if she were. Llinos is just a nice name that is not that of anyone I know.
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