The Bride in Waiting

"Like a bride, waiting for her groom

We'll be a church ready for You

Every heart, longing for our King

We sing, even so come

Lord Jesus come!"
~Even So Come

This song has been singing in my head the past few days.  It's a very familiar thought in this season of life.  Wedding preparations are in full swing, and I look forward with much anticipation to the day when all the planning will be done and I'll walk down an aisle in a white dress...to join Carl as his bride.  But as we've been preparing and planning for that day, and more importantly for our life as one afterwards, I've been thinking more about another wedding that's coming...another bride that's making herself ready, and another groom that will be coming back for His bride.  

Spurgeon depicts this so well....here's what he says: 

"Heaven is always Heaven and unspeakably full of blessedness—but even Heaven has its holidays, even bliss has its overflowing. And on that day when the springtide of the infinite ocean of joy shall have come, what a measureless flood of delight shall overflow the souls of all glorified spirits as they perceive that the consummation of love's great design is come—"The marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife has made herself ready"! We do not know yet, Beloved, of what happiness we are capable. We have sometimes wished that we could—

"Sit and sing ourselves away To everlasting bliss."

But then we were only feeling the spray of the ocean of blessedness. What must it be to bathe in it? Here we drink from cups of consolation. But what draughts we shall have when we lie down at the wellhead and drink in our joy immediately from God! If you and I enter glory soon without our bodies, we shall not even then know to the utmost degree what will be the bliss of our perfected manhood—when the body shall be raised incorruptible from among the dead and joined to the sinless soul. Nor would this give us more than a bare idea of the infinite blessedness of myriads of such perfected manhood united in a perfected Church—from which no one single member shall be missing, nor one member maimed, or sick, or stained.

Praise the Lord Jesus as you sing—

"You the whole body shall present Before Your Father's face. Nor shall a wrinkle, or a spot, The beauteous form deface."

Oh, what joy! I feel as if I could not preach to you—I want to get away to think it over and chew the cud of meditation for myself. You must just sit where you are and muse. Here we have the essence of heavenly music in a few plain words. "The marriage of the Lamb is come." Oh, may I be there! May I be a part of the perfected body of the Church of God! Oh, that I might be but part of the soles of her feet, or the least hair of her head! If I may but see the King in His beauty, in the fullness of His joy—when He shall take by the right hand her for whom He shed His precious blood and shall know the joy which was set before Him, for which He endured the Cross, despising the shame—I shall be blest indeed! . . .The Church is the Bride of the great King and He will set the crown upon her head and make her to be known as His true spouse forever. Oh, what a day that will be, when every member of Christ shall be crowned in Him, and with Him, and every member of the mystical body shall be glorified in the glory of the Bridegroom! Oh, may I be there in that day! Brethren, we must be with our Lord in the fight if we would be with Him in the victory. We must be with Him in wearing the crown of thorns, if we are to be with Him in wearing the crown of glory. We must be faithful, by His Grace, even unto death, if we are to share the glory of His endless life.

I cannot tell you all it means but certainly this marriage signifies that all who have believed in Him shall then enter into a bliss which shall never end—a bliss which no fear approaches, or doubt beclouds. They shall be forever with the Lord, forever glorified with Him. Expect not lips of clay fitly to speak on such a theme. Tongues of fire are needed and words that fall like fire-flakes on the soul.

A day will come, the day of days, time's crown and glory—when all conflict, risk and judgment is ended forever— the saints, arrayed in the righteousness of Christ shall be eternally one with Him in a living, loving, lasting union, partaking together of the same glory, the glory of the Most High. What must it be to be there!" ~ Charles Spurgeon, "The Marriage of the Lamb"

Just a a bride prepares for her wedding day, so we, the church, as the Bride of Christ should be preparing for our wedding day with even more of an eagerness and joy.  As I've contemplated this over the past couple of weeks, I think I'm understanding more why Jesus begged the Father to unify His followers.  For how can the bride become one with the bridegroom if she's not already one herself?  

Just as I've poured time and energy into preparing for my wedding here on earth, I'm challenged to pour my time and energy even more into preparing for a heavenly wedding...pursuing unity with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart, and growing in holiness as I let the Potter shape me more and more into the image of Jesus.