Good morning. As a pastor for over 40 years, it has been my pleasure to be a part of a number of weddings. Weddings are special, and wonderful, and joyful. At the center of each wedding is the bride. We may call it “their day” (the bride and the groom) but we all know that while the groom is happy to be there (at least we hope so) it is the bride’s day.
Brides come in all shapes and sizes, and I have presided over weddings for brides in their late teens and I have presided over weddings for brides in their 80s. But brides have this in common: it is their great desire to look their best, be their best, and to provide the best wedding possible for their friends, family, and fiancée. Brides are beautiful. Each and every one of them…beautiful!
Why are brides so fixated on everything being “just right” at their wedding? Do they think that they need to look their absolute best in order to get their fiancée to marry them? Of course not! That decision has already been made. No, the opposite is true. It isn’t because they want to get their fiancée to marry them, it is because their fiancée is marrying them. They want to look and to be their best for the groom on this very special and historic day in their lives because they love him.
The same is true for us. We, the church of our Lord Jesus, are His bride. The scriptures pronounce this truth several times. John, when God is sharing with him the Revelation of heaven, says in Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. We read a few verses later in Revelation 21:9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
Who is this glorious and beautiful bride of the Lamb-Jesus? It is His body, His church, it is you and it is I, we are the bride of Christ. Every moment of every day we are to be ready for our big day, our wedding feast with our Savior Jesus. We are to consider how we can look our best for Him, act our best for Him, be our best for Him. We are His bride, and we are beautiful for Him and in Him.
Be ready for the groom today, be beautiful in Jesus.
Vern