Yesterday a dear friend got married. She and her now husband have had a long and truly remarkable journey. For all of us standing as witness for them yesterday, it was a joyous sound to hear: “Hussam and Leslie are now married.”

The story of their love is beyond description. A very long list of trials and tribulations can be made. They have had serious health problems, ill parents, the death of some very close and life long friends, the abandonment by people who should love them without condition. The heartache and loneliness to reconcile that a parent simply has a small and intolerant heart is devastating. They have had the added scrutiny of being Muslims in one of the most trying times in our country’s history. And all of us there last night stood vigil with them. With love, compassion and sometimes horror, we struggled to support and protect our dear friends along the path no one would ever have chosen for themselves. Yet through all of it, the one simple fact remained like a beacon of hope. Their LOVE. It was unbreakable. No amount of pressure, manipulation, emotional torture, grief, sacrifice or distance could deny or defile their love.

It was a true example of the phase, “What God has made let no man put asunder.”

I witnessed the sounding of the trumpets of love.  In a ballroom filled with the fruits of their imaginations and creativity, we all created a joyous sound. Leslie and Hussam SHARE a vision of love that has already endured so much. It is in the fire of tribulation we are all forged. What emerged yesterday was pure, liquid gold ready to be fashioned into God’s greatest desire: love between a man and a woman.

May all the Blessings of the Lord be upon them.