My Bride

I waited nervously but with such excitement I couldn't help but smile. I had a grin on my face that would not go away and I cherished every minute. When she arrived the smile (or stupid look) on my face only got bigger. My mind ran through the past 5 years: the good, the rough, the laughter, the prayers, everything that it took to get us to this point. Finally before friends, family and those closets to us, we stood before God and made vows and promises to look like Christ. This picture in my mind is of me waiting for my bride to come down the aisle at my wedding. It is probably one of the clearest and most amazing pictures I have of that day. I have read several books about Christ and his bride, I have heard many sermons on the bride of Christ, but it never really came full circle until I got married.

The wonderful thing about marriage is that it truly models our Lord ( or it should). It is the best picture to Christ that I have experienced to date.

Marriage and wedding were a vital picture in Scripture:

Matthew 25:1-10 Jesus uses a parable of 10 virgins waiting for the bridegroom to return.

Ephesians 5:22-31-Model of husband and wife with Jesus' love.

Revelation 19:7--Where the wedding of the lamb and his bride (the church) is beginning.

Revealation 21:2--Where the new city of Jerusalem is described as the bride.

I would like to focus my excitement described earlier through John 3:29:

"The bride belongs to the bridegroom...... He must become greater and I must become less."

Now (and this is important) contextually John is speaking about the role that he plays, as many thought that he was the coming Messiah. John refutes this claim by stating it clearly in 3:28, then using a picture of a wedding as his example. Here he wants to illustrate that he is not the Messiah (bridegroom) but rather the best man (or friend). He finishes this up by stating that "He (Jesus) must become greater and I must become less."

But I also love this verse in terms of my own wedding because of the picture it creates:

"The bride belongs to the bridegroom."

The bride (the church) belongs to Christ and to Him alone. No one else can claim the bride as she belongs to her groom. I couldn't imagine my bride belonging to someone else. It would seem absurd (and I would have to pull out the old guns from the gun show--guns being my arms--yes I know) and she would know it. The joy that my heart felt seeing my bride was not simply "oh she looks pretty"(though she did), but that soon she would be mine. I would belong to her and she would belong to me. We are united as one (Hebrew echad).

"He must become greater and I must become less." Now in no way is my wife greater than me (though she may think so) but I find the more I walk with Christ I also have noticed that being a good, godly husband requires a lot of death to self (Eph. 5:22-25). A continuous death to the selfishness that I naturally run to and to where I can no longer stand alone, nor be the center of attention. Marriage requires a lot of adjustments and sacrifices as you fully incorporate a person in to your life. The way you sleep, what you eat, sometimes how you eat it, when you go out, how your day looks, your thoughts about your future, where you will move and giving up who you are so that you may love that person better.

Our walk with Christ is no different: we give up our old self, which Christ crucified with his life, to live the new regenerated self. (Eph. 4:22-24; Gal. 5:24; 2 Cor. 5;17). Similar to John's statement about Jesus can be said of the marriage: I must become less....my thoughts, my wants, my desires, become less in terms of not being the center of everything (or atleast I ask my wife first) so that I can love her and lift her up to Christ and vice versa.

This is why the picture of marriage to me is so beautiful. It exudes the gospel, it overflows with the pictures of Christ being married to his bride, caring for her, loving her, and dying for her. My biggest prayer since being engaged is that my marriage will look like Christ, and be a sweet aroma and example to believers and non-believers. (2 Cor. 2:15)

Be Blessed