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One of Jesus' stories about grace made it into three different Gospels,
in slightly different versions. My favorite version, though, appeared
in another source entirely: the Boston Globe's account in June 1990 of
a most unusual wedding banquet.
Accompanied by her fiancée, a woman went to the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston and ordered the meal. The two of them pored over the menu, made selections of china and silver, and pointed to pictures of the flower arrangements they liked. They both had expensive taste, and the bill
came to thirteen thousand dollars. After leaving a check for half that
amount as down payment, the couple went home to flip through books of
wedding announcements.
The day the announcements were supposed to hit the mailbox, the potential
groom got cold feet, "I'm just not sure," he said. "It's a big commitment.
Let's think about this a little longer."
When his angry fiancée returned to the Hyatt to cancel the banquet, the
Events Manager could not have been more understanding. "The same thing
happened to me, Honey," she said, and told the story of her own broken
engagement. But about the refund, she had bad news. "The contract is
binding. You're entitled to thirteen hundred dollars back. You have
two options: to forfeit the rest of the down payment, or go ahead with
the banquet. I'm sorry. Really, I am."
It seemed crazy, but the more the jilted bride thought about it, the
more she liked the idea of going ahead with the party - not a wedding
banquet, mind you, but a big blowout. Ten years before, this is same
woman had been living in a homeless shelter. She had got back on her
feet, found a good job and set aside a sizable nest egg. Now she had
the wild notion of using her savings to treat the down-and-outs of
Boston to a night on the town.
And so it was that in June of 1990 the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Boston
hosted a party such as it had never seen before. The hostess changed
the menu to boneless chicken - "in honor of the groom," she said - and
sent invitations to rescue missions and homeless shelters. That warm
summer night, people who were used to peeling half-gnawed pizza off
the cardboard dined instead of chicken cordon bleu. Hyatt waiters in
tuxedos served hors d'oeuvres to senior citizens propped up by crutches
and aluminum walkers. Bag ladies, vagrants, and addicts took one night
off from the hard life on the sidewalks outside and instead sipped
champagne, ate chocolate wedding cake, and danced to big-band melodies
late into the night.
Philip Yancey
(Inspirational submitted by: Jeannette Dawson)