When Your Honeymoon Starts with a Crash

Last Saturday, my new bride and I exited our wedding reception through a happy gauntlet of cheering family and friends.

We got in my SUV, which our friends had decorated with pink and white streamers, balloons, and “Just married!” signs.

We drove away, honking and waving.

Less than 48 hours later, the SUV was in a muddy ditch.

We started our honeymoon in a small cabin in the woods. The second morning of our stay, I woke up and started a fire to warm the place. My wife was still asleep. I slipped out and got in the SUV to drive to the nearby town and get us some breakfast.

A few minutes later, I snapped awake to find myself careening across a wet yard and slamming into a ditch.

I had dozed off at the wheel.

Thank God, neither I nor anyone else was hurt. I called my wife to tell her what happened. A tow truck hauled my smashed vehicle to a nearby lot. My wife called a cab to pick me up.

The taxi driver dropped me off back at our cabin. I didn’t know what to expect. Would my wife be furious? Had I ruined our honeymoon?

As I walked through the door, she leapt off the couch, ran over, and embraced me. We held each other tight for a few minutes. She was thankful I was okay.

It reminded me of a podcast I recently heard, in which a woman said after losing her first husband, she decided not to sweat small matters.

If her husband came home late, even if she was irritated, she wouldn’t say, “You’re late.” She’d say, “You’re home.”

That’s what my new wife did for me when I came back to the cabin. She welcomed me home. She showed me grace. I apologized to her for being irresponsible and marring our nice trip. She said it was okay and we’d figure everything out.

The next day, we rented a car and drove to the lot to check out my battered SUV. We retrieved some items from it and let the insurance adjustor assess the damage. We drove the rental car back to the cabin, sat by the crackling fire with hot chocolate, and snuggled on the couch as snow fell softly outside.

When two people get married, they commit to loving and helping each other through good times and bad. They commit to show patience, forgiveness, grace, love, and support.

Sooner than later, life will throw trials your way to test this commitment. For us, it was two days into our honeymoon.

There will be many more trials ahead. Accidents. Stupid decisions. Unexpected financial stresses. Whatever the challenges, they will come. And God asks us to be ready to handle them equipped with love, compassion, kindness, and grace.

That’s why we need these things. Not for the wonderful times when it’s easy to show love. It’s for the times your car ends up in a ditch and your perfect plans go out the window.

When that happens, put into practice Saint Paul’s words to the Colossians. They're the same words from the Scripture reading at our wedding—

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:12-15).