Longing For The Bride

The sun had yet to rise as I heard the pitter-patter of adolescent feet scampering across the hardwood floor. I desperately attempted to block it out as I lay covered in my borrowed sheet on the living room couch when suddenly the pitter-patter stopped and exhausted breathing ensued above my shrouded head. The hope of revisiting my dreamy state had faded, all I could now do was pull back the bedsheet to behold the source of the early morning chaos. Inches from my face was a five-year-old little girl staring at me wide-eyed, far more awake than I could ever be.

“You’re getting married today”.

“Yup. Thank you, Nora”.

It was the day I had longed for, the day I was to be forever united with the greatest friend, and most wonderful, beautiful woman I could’ve ever hoped to love. It was my wedding day.

That’s all I could think about as I sat in the bachelor suite with my groomsman as my bride to be prepared herself for me through the adjoining wall. My groomsman and I had run some last-minute errands, picking up the dessert doughnuts (because Krispy Kreme is far better than any wedding cake), and arriving on the beautiful grounds far earlier than I needed to be.

As the rest of my groomsmen finally arrived, we sat back and killed time with food and spirits all while watching Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls. It was a calm and perfect day. It was too calm, it was too relaxing. I began getting antsy and didn’t care to eat or drink or converse with anyone, all I could think of was the bride. I was so excited! I was about to puke. I was confident. I was a wreck. The time of waiting was agonizing for me, but how was it for my bride? Was she nervous? Was she feeling as excitedly anxious as I?

She could not have been more calm nor more sure of what she was about to do as she prepared herself for me. Mind you, I too was confident and sure of what was about to take place, never once did I have cold feet. The days, the weeks, the year and a half of courting, not once was I unsure of the union my wife and I would once have. Yet on the day of our wedding, I could not hide how desperately I longed for my bride, how emotional it was to see her in all her beauty, to know how she patiently and confidently had prepared herself for me.

Why do I share this? That morning, I began to think toward the Day of the Lord spoken of in the book of Revelation, when after preparing ourselves for Him, we as His Church will be presented to Christ as His bride.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away’. And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new’” (Revelation 21:1-5 ESV)

“Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal” (21:9-11).

As I stood at the altar before all my friends and family, gazing upon my beautiful bride coming down the aisle toward me, I wept. I began to understand the immeasurable love Christ has for us as His bride, and the confidence we are to have in coming to Him, the same confidence I saw in my bride as she came to me.

The day was beautiful, it was wonderful, it’s the closest thing to heaven I can imagine, and it makes sense. As we are finally united to Christ as a husband is united to his wife, it’s a party, it’s a wedding feast, it’s heaven. We will feast and dance and cry for joy far more than my bride and I did on that beautiful day.

As we draw ever closer to the most wonderful of days, let us prepare ourselves as the bride, with confidence and joy each day as I can only imagine Christ as a restless groom, eagerly and desperately longing for His bride, longing to be united to both you and I.