ENan and I attended a wedding last weekend. It was the first wedding we have attended in quite a while. The wedding was a beautiful affair with gorgeous flowers, a moving ceremony and lots of dancing at the reception.
My favorite part of any wedding happens as the bride makes her way down the aisle. While everyone else has their eyes on the bride, I watch the groom. I love to see the face of the groom when he first spots his bride in her wedding gown. There is usually a mixture of joy, surprise and overwhelming love that breaks out in a huge grin and watering eyes.
The scene of a groom waiting for his bride reminds me of a passage from the Book of Revelation: “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.” (Revelation 19:7-8)
I admit, it takes some deep imagination for me to picture myself in a wedding gown. Although, I almost ended up wearing one while transporting our daughter’s gown to El Salvador for her wedding. The flight attendant at the gate told me the dress would not fit in the overhead bins and would have to be checked. I refused to let her place the dress in the cargo area for fear it would be lost or damaged. The attendant stood her ground, so I told her, “I’ll wear the dress if I have to, but I am not letting it out of my sight!” Fortunately, we found room in the overhead bin.
Several years ago I officiated a wedding where the bride showed up fifteen minutes before the ceremony was to begin. When asked about her late arrival, she replied, “I knew my dress was ready. I wanted to make sure my heart was.”
The almost-tardy bride was right! The dress is not the important thing. It is the heart. The Apostle Paul reminds us that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy…to present her to himself as a radiant church.” (Ephesians 5:25-27) We want to ready to meet Jesus with hearts that are cleansed by his grace and filled with pure love and devotion.
Is your heart ready?
-Dr. Jim Baldwin