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The Beautiful Bride
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”– for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
Rev. 19:7-8 ESV
As some of you know, our oldest child, Lily, got married a couple of weeks ago. As a father, the marriage of my only daughter was an amazing, emotional, and truly worshipful event. To watch two young people devoted first to Christ and second to one another gives such confidence that, against all pressures of the world, the covenant they made to one another will last, as they said, “for as long as we both shall live.”
Throughout the wedding preparations I was overjoyed knowing that the upcoming celebration of love and devotion would bring glory to Christ because this couple sought to mirror in their relationship the relationship of Christ to us, His bride. The entire pomp and circumstance surrounding the wedding took the effort, creativity, and energy of many friends and family. If you know our daughter, she is not one for the usual pomp and circumstance and she really did take the preparations for her wedding day more casually than many brides do. However, no bride walks down the aisle at her wedding unprepared! Each bride adorns herself with ornaments (Isa. 49:18) and jewels (Isa. 61:10) and proper wedding attire (Jer. 2:32) to make herself ready for the wedding (Rev. 19:7). She readies herself physically and mentally, and presents herself in grandest beauty to her betrothed… and when the wedding guests catch that first glimpse of this bride, the tears of joy flow. There is a majesty in the presentation of the pure bride, adorned with jewels, prepared and presented to enter into the fullness of the covenant to be entered into, never intended to be broken, save by death.
Of course, the whole day just dripped with theological significance for us as Christians! Are you, Christian, adorned with the appropriate attire for your wedding day to our eternal groom, Jesus Christ? Are you setting your affections and intentions toward the everlasting life to come when we sit face-to-face with our groom and king as His covenant with us is fully consummated? Are you moment-by-moment thankful that the “fine linen” (Rev. 19:8) of our righteous deeds, done through the power of our groom, are making us presentable to Him on that wonderful day to come? What joy will be had on that day! The tears that fall will be tears only of joy and excitement. I pray that you enjoy a little extra time to meditate on God’s promises in Christ and to imagine that day and the wedding feast to come that will unlike anything we have ever seen or known here; and the wedding celebration that will never end and of which we will never tire.
Getting dressed for a wedding,
Pastor Aaron
