I'm talking about the marriage of Christ and His bride. I don't think it'll play out exactly like you imagine a wedding here on earth, but the experience will be the same. I'll be marrying Christ along with all my other fellow believers, but it will feel just as personal as I described. Each of us who belong to Him will experience His incomprehensible love to its fullest extent in our own hearts on that Day.
We'll know that love in full. Right now we can only taste it (but what a glorious taste it is!)... someday, we'll be absolutely consumed by it. That's the love I live for. The love is demonstrated towards me, even though everything I do makes me unworthy of it.
Friends... marriage on earth is only a picture.
I know a lot of people right now who can't wait to be married, including myself. I feel like when I'm married, yeah I'll have lots more problems to face than I do now, but at least I'll be facing those problems with the love of my life at my side. That's more appealing to me than dealing with stupid teenage issues on my own. My heart tells me that when I'm married, life will just have a happier feel to it in general. I bet it's true. There's more to it, though.
I, as a human being, have been created to be known, loved, and to love in return. I'll find joy in the fulfillment of those things when I'm married more than ever before. But marriage on earth is not what I've ultimately been created for. It's kinda like it's just practice. It comes nowhere near the perfect jubilee that I'll experience at the marriage feast of Christ and His bride.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. {Colossians 3:2}
Thank you for this beautiful thought, Emily. At the beginning of the summer I was struggling a little more than usual with not making marriage an idol. And I realized that when we're desiring earthly marriage so much, we're wanting the shadow more than the glory of the heavenly union between Christ and the Church.
ReplyDelete