2025.6.14. (土曜日, 165th/365) “Father of Bride Speech”(Sarah's Wedding in Vibiana, Los Angeles)

2025.6.14. (土曜日, 165th/365) “Father of Bride Speech”

(Sarah's Wedding in Vibiana, Los Angeles)

오늘 결혼식에 신부아빠가 말하는 시간이 있어 준비해 보았습니다. 감사합니다.

I am thrilled to speak to you as the father of the bride today. With all the upheavals in LA as well as in Israel, Iran, Ukraine, and Russia, I give thanks to God, Phillip's parents, friends, and relatives who love Sarah and Phillip.

Sarah is the eldest of our family. Sarah's grandparents wanted their first grandchild to be a baby boy. However, with God's will, Sarah was born in 1992 at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston while I was a doctoral student. I named her Sarah, the biblical matriarch, which means Queen.

She was an avid and voracious reader. Whenever I purchase a children's book collection, she reads a slim novel in a day. Her curiosity and intellect increased as time went by. When we traveled to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, Disneyland in California, and White Mountain in New Hampshire, in Zurich, Switzerland, she was holding a Curious George and Friends book in one hand and a Boston bagel with cream cheese in the other. Consequently, Sarah and I walked up to the podium together to receive our Ph.D. diploma from Harvard University. It was her first official degree from Harvard University. It was her first official degree from the U.S. At graduation, with my diploma, her smile shone so brightly and became our family's guiding light.

In life, both challenges and miracles occur. When adversity struck in Korea, she made the decision to stand on her own with the support of her family members and began to rebuild her life in Los Angeles, guided by angels. At that time, she was all alone by herself like Jacob in Yabbok creek.

One day, as she passed the same street on her way to a community college, she noticed a homeless person. He had a wooden plate with "Homeless, Please Help" written on it. Kindness in Sarah's heart moved her steps towards him and she gave him all she had, $10.

And she asked, "What is your name?" The person started to sob bitterly and said, "You are the first person who has asked my name in a long time." His eyes brimmed with tears as he said to Sarah, "Do not waste your precious time like I have." God bless you!" That massage was inscribed in Sarah's mind like Moses' Ten Commandment tablets. A miracle happens. Kindness changed Sarah's life completely. The unnamed homeless person was God in disguise.

With all the clutter removed, Sarah contemplated figuring out what she truly wanted in her wild and precious life. When I visited her in 2016, I found her study notebooks neatly and meticulously written. I shed my tears because, against all odds, Sarah found herself. She returned to her senses. She returned to herself, the original home.

During her sojourn in LA, another miracle happened. Happiness is only achievable by those who make it happen. One day Sarah called me and said, "Daddy, I have a boyfriend!" She never uttered that phrase before. In the Bible, Sarah is called a woman of valor, eshet hayyil in Hebrew. This refers to a woman who is full of courage and wisdom. Phillip, Sarah's lifelong partner and husband, is caring and trustworthy. Phillip, as you know, means "lover of horses" in Greek. That means a lover who could love animals and trees. I thank God for having Phillip as my son-in-law and as my son.

It was not easy for me to come to LA because of my previous visits to Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Israel. I sincerely thank Phillip's mother and father for arranging this wonderful wedding. I hope to host a wedding party in Korea soon. I want to close my fater of bride speech by reciting my favorite American poet, Mary Oliver's poem, Summer Day. It goes like this.

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean ?

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down ?

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?