w is for wedding announcement

So…that was a mean title…but that’s what you get when I’m on W and SO CLOSE TO THE END OF THE ALPHABET!! (Can you tell I’m excited??) I really don’t technically have a wedding announcement, but that is kind of what I’m going to blog about.

I ran across this excellent article in On Mission Magazine entitled The Bride of Christ: Preparing for His Return. I was intrigued because I have always loved the analogy of marriage and the relationship between Christ and His Church found so often in Scripture. This article was so well written and truly challenged me to be living more as if I am the expectant bride of Christ.

Honestly, if I could do my wedding day all over again, I would. It was such a special, fun day for Justin and I. The reception afterwards truly flew by, which I knew it would, so we purposefully planned for our wedding service to be memorable and God-centered. I was so thankful for how things came together – all of the details that I (and Justin!) spent 5 months planning and looking forward to. I’ve been to several weddings that were so short you would think that it was just a “formality” to get to the honeymoon and I knew that was not the message we wanted to send. My bridesmaids probably hated me for how long they had to stand there, singing and looking pretty, but I’m so thankful for the huge part everyone played in that important day for us. What a fun and worshipful time of committing ourselves to one another before God and our loved ones! As I stood there that day with Justin, I knew that all my hard work planning and all the prayers for a wonderful husband were totally worth every minute spent. God truly brought Justin and I together and I am so thankful for the perfect mate.

For the 5 months leading up to our wedding I was totally engaged (pun intended, I guess!) in planning, looking my best, and picking the best of everything to make our wedding day perfect. The wedding plans really took precedence over everything else. I even had the worst grades of my whole seminary career that semester! Nothing was more important to me than the upcoming wedding.

After reading this article, I am so convicted of the lack of priority I place on preparing for the wedding ceremony that will one day take place between Christ and His Church. When I accepted Christ as a young 10 year old girl, I was “engaged” to Christ who has gone to “prepare a place for me” for this special day to come. I don’t know when I will meet Him face to face, but certainly everything else in my life should take a back seat to preparing to be the beautiful, radiant, Christ-like bride I am called to be. Our eternal marriage to Christ is so much greater than even my wonderful marriage to my earthly husband.

How are you preparing for the day that Christ returns? Does everything revolve around preparing yourself for His coming? Will you be a bride who has lost sight of His promised return or a radiant, expectant bride?

Take some time to read the article…it will be well worth it…I can’t even do it justice!