This Is About That: A Father of the Groom's Toast and Charge

Good evening friends and family … we are bringing our celebration of Andrew and Cora to a close tonight … don’t worry though … there will be plenty of time to continue the celebration tomorrow.  Both Janna and I again want to thank you for coming tonight but more importantly than that … we want to thank you for the parts each of you have played in molding both of them into the wonderful people they are today.  But they are not finished growing yet … so please, please continue speaking into their lives.  They need you to and we need you to as well.

Andrew’s journey began 24-1/2 years ago when he was born in Hawai’i though he only lived there for a few months.  Cora was also born “way out west” as they say in San Diego.  So perhaps they were just destined to find each other and to build a life together.  Andrew has the great misfortune [or maybe I should better say … CHALLENGE] of being born fourth following a string of amazing sisters who blazed the trail before him.  I can’t even begin to imagine how hard that would be for him to live in the light of those expectations.  But somehow Andrew thrived in that pressure cooker of both great academic as well as behavioral expectations.  None of my kids were as diligent in their studies as Andrew was and he ultimately exceeded them all as a result.  But it was probably the Godly way his sisters lived their lives that was the hardest act to follow … more on that in a minute.

But those were not the only challenges Andrew had to deal with.  Perhaps the most underestimated challenge is collectively what I call the “estrogen effect.”  Don’t be deceived … this whole “gender fluidity” concept so much in the news these past few years didn’t just begin during the Obama days.  Oh No!  It goes back at least to the late 1990s when one morning a three year old Andrew asked me for my help in finding his panties … since somehow I have always been in charge of the laundry.  I, of course, told him that he did not wear panties … to which he indignantly replied that he “most certainly did wear panties.”  It took a lot of convincing that day to assure him that boys wear underwear and girls wear panties.  Thankfully, he never asked me for help in finding his bra during his teenage years.

With God’s providence, Andrew found his way as a boy in a girls’ world, developing a passion for sports like his dad along the way.  He was active in church activities always, but Jesus was never his passion during his teen years like He was for his sisters, so that created great concern and consternation for his mother and me as he headed across town to FSU for his college years.  So many budding lives of faith get shipwrecked during that transformative time in the lives of young people.  It goes without saying that there were many prayers offered up during those years and the years leading up to them.

Several of you sitting here in this room tonight are physical manifestations of those very prayers … Sam, Franklin, Michael who are here tonight and also Yates and Joey who will be there tomorrow …  But there is literally no greater example of this than Andrew’s best friend and best man Connor who

he met for the first time that very day he set foot on campus as incoming freshman.  Connor and he would be floor mates in their dorm and Andrew’s fate was set.  Connor was [and still is] such a Godly and Godward young man that day when Andrew first met him … we were overjoyed to see  the providential hand of God at work and the final transformation of Andrew by God Himself through Connor, all his roommates at the Rock and through the fabulous ministry of Cru had begun and made Andrew into the very man he is today.  A man worthy of a terrific young woman like Cora.  And the best part of his Cru story as well is that is where he met the lovely and gracious Cora who came to FSU a year behind him.  I could see immediately upon being introduced to Cora what the attraction is and to know Cora is to love Cora.  Janna and I could not be happier to be welcoming Cora into our burgeoning family tomorrow … a family that is now up to NINE grandkids, all six and under, and counting!  No pressure on Andrew and Cora to add to the fold and to keep the name of Currieo from, in Lincoln’s words, “perishing from the earth.”  Well … there just might be a little pressure there!

Lastly, I want to close by reminding all of us … myself included, of just what will happen tomorrow afternoon [rain or shine] when Andrew and Cora pledge their lives together in Christian marriage.  This is no ordinary transaction or worldly promise.  NO!  The entire heavenly realm will take notice of this and the Sovereign hand of Almighty God will join these two individuals into “one flesh” for the rest of their lives.  It is of both eternal and cosmic importance.  Satan and his demons will take notice as well and scowl … determined to tear you apart, but you will be sealed by the Holy Spirit of God Himself and if you walk faithfully in His path you will bring Him great honor as a couple, for you will be far more powerful joined together than either of you would be separately.  Powerful for tearing down strongholds and advancing the literal Kingdom of God.  This is because your union is about far more than you yourselves … because in the light of eternity … THIS IS ABOUT THAT!