This
is Josh and Bre Curtas, a devout Christian couple, minutes before their
wedding ceremony, now living in Virginia. Josh wanted to be sure they
started their marriage off right, so without seeing the bride before the
ceremony, they sat around the corner from one another, held hands and
prayed.
Photographer Kimberly Burke snapped this photo of Bre and
Josh holding hands and praying before their wedding in August 2012.
Burke told HuffPost Weddings that the photo went viral back in January
when Bre wrote a blog post about it.
This week, this photo went
viral for a second time on the internet after the New York Daily News
wrote about the photo on Wednesday.
Bre wrote in her blog post
recently that she wanted to share the story behind the photo for the
hundreds of thousands of people who found inspiration through this sweet
moment she and her husband had.
Below is the story behind the Photo worte and posted by Bre:
Moments
before I was to walk down the aisle my soon to be mother in law came in
the dressing room where my bridesmaids and I were all gushing with
giggles and fluttering about finishing last minute details.
"Sweetheart, your groom has called for you!".
In
a nervous tizzy I said, "What?! I'm not ready! I have to get my shoes
and..."She had already taken my hand and led me to a corner, where my
groom was waiting. I barely sat down; I was filled with so much
anticipation! So much excitement! So many nerves!
"Is he going to like my dress? Does my hair look pretty? Can he see me?!"
Right
around the corner sat my soon to be husband, I so was nervous he might
see me yet secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of him. In my excited
state I was the first to speak,
"Hi sweetie! We're getting married today!"
"I know baby and I want to pray with you before we do."
There
we sat around the corner hand in hand, and together we bowed our heads.
People were rushing about; the wedding coordinator directing people
here and there, the photographers snapping photos and the bridal party
enjoying each others company. Yet in that moment, in the quietness of
our hearts and minds, my husband and I were alone in the presence of our
Savior, Jesus Christ.
My husband prayed that God would bless our
marriage, that through thick or thin together we would never lose hope
in one another. That instead of focusing on each others imperfections we
would always rely on Christ's perfection. That we would wake up every
day and chose to love one another not through our own strength but by
the power of Christ's perfect love.
With our hands clenched
tightly to one another together we said "Amen", both with shaky voice
and just like that I was whisked away to blot the tears off my face and
put on my veil.
After my bridesmaids, mother, mother-in-law and
every other girl in the room had finished zipping, curling, tucking and
blushing me up I looked in the mirror. There I stood wearing my pure
white wedding dress, ready to walk down the aisle to my Prince Charming.
See,
he is not only my Prince Charming because of his incredibly handsome
looks, or wonderful humor, or the fact that we have so much in common.
He is my Prince Charming because he helped me protect the most precious
gift that I owned, my purity.
Soon after we had started dating I
nervously told my Prince that I was a virgin and planned to be until the
night of my wedding; to which he replied he would have it no other way.
Throughout
our dating relationship and engagement we constantly fought, what at
times felt like a losing battle. We fought temptation with prayer,
scripture and accountability. I had friends checking up on me if they
knew we were together late at night and he regularly met with other
Godly men to pray for strength. At times, especially as the wedding grew
closer, we thought we were attempting to do the impossible.
"Why are we doing this?" I would ask in my weakness, and he would remind me, that it's because God had told us too.
"I can't do it, I can't... this is too hard!" he would confess to me and I would pray for his strength.
When
I walked down the aisle in my white dress, I looked straight into the
eyes of the man that had laid himself down to protect and honor the wife
that God had given him.
When his eyes first caught mine he
looked into the face of the woman that had waited for him, the woman
that would support him and love him for the rest of His life, through
good times and bad.
I share all of this because in that prayer we
prayed, which was captured here on camera we asked the Lord to use our
wedding to bring Him all of the glory that He rightfully deserved. We
had not gotten where we were by our own strength, but by His hand of
protection on our relationship.
God has used this photo to
inspire hundreds of thousands of people already and for that we are
humbled and honored! I wanted to take it a step further and give God
praise and thanks for how we arrived at that quiet corner, holding hands
and ready to begin our lives together.
