We are His Bride

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:    “Hallelujah!
   For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad
   and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
   and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean,
   was given her to wear.”
   (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)
Revelation 19:6-8

Do you remember your wedding day?  I had been engaged for almost a year and a half; I was SO ready to be married!  The anticipation was almost more that what I could stand!

As a body of believers, we are the bride of Christ.  Do we have that same anticipation as on our wedding day, waiting, anticipating, the moment that we see our bridegroom and join him eternally?

That is what we were created to feel, you know.  Most of us struggle with an unexplained, unanswered yearning.  No matter what we try to use to fill in the empty places - things, people, anything - the satisfaction we achieve will always go away.

And why?  Because we weren't created to fill those spaces with things, of any kind.  We were created to fill those spaces with God.  And what is really a longing for fulfillment, is kind of a homesickness.  We long to be home, united with our creator, together with our groom.

Equating ourselves to be the marriage partner of Christ may seem . . . icky.  You have to take away the world's view of marriage, take the physical out of the equation.  Because finally, at that moment, every longing will be met.  Every empty space will be filled.  Every hurt will be soothed.  That's so much more than physical.  That's emotional, mental, spiritual . . . eternal.

It's kind of weird to think of my husband and myself being a bride.  (OK, I laugh at the picture in my head a little bit.)  But I trust God, and I believe that this wedding feast we will one day share is a real, literal thing.  No longer will the temporary try to satisfy.  On that day, the temporary is no more, and I'll look into the face of the one who loves me more than my husband ever could, or even attempt to!  I'll see my eternal groom, and all the anticipation will be worth it.

"I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband."  Revelation 21:2