Love in the Time of Pandemic

On Aug. 2, my brother and (now) sister-in-law got married. The wedding had been postponed since May but the bride and groom decided not to let any more time go by to celebrate their love. If you had asked the couple six months ago to describe their dream wedding, I’m sure masks, an extremely limited guest list, no reception, no hugging, socially distanced seats, and a backyard location would be far from the listed details.

And yet, if you asked them to convey the emotion and meaning of the day, there would be no difference in description. Their wedding was pure love: two people dedicated to journeying through life together, best friends destined to support each other through times of uncertainty and times of ease. My brother’s eyes overflowed with tears as he watched his bride walk toward him. And as he cried tears of joy, hope and embrace, we cried with him. We were witnessing a moment unparalleled in time, in which one half of a soul was joining another.

“Shir haShirim” reminds us, “Many waters cannot quench love; neither can floods drown it.” I recited these words before the bride and groom and never felt their meaning more than in that moment. This pandemic has nothing in the face of true love. Not by COVID-19, not by quarantine, not by masks, not by an abundance of hand sanitizer, not by a completely changed venue, date or time of day. Where there is love, there is a way.

May we see many more moments when love conquers all.

Amen.