A few evenings ago, we received the long-anticipated wedding photo album from our photographer. Photos carry so much imagery & provide a timestamp to help remember precious moments in our lives that flee quickly from us. As we were sitting & sorting through all the photos of our special day, my heart kept coming back to a reminder that I had constantly throughout the year of wedding planning. 

“Jesus is coming back for His Bride.” 

Wedding planning is full of so many nuts and bolts to make the celebratory day special for the bride and groom. I am sure you have all experienced something in regards to planning a wedding, being a part of a wedding, helping fund a wedding, and so much more. I love that we do celebrate weddings, and the sacrament of becoming one flesh in front of beloved friends and family. 

About halfway through the wedding process, I got wrecked by the to-do list we had to complete & I was heavily convicted by the Lord. Personally, I was in the thick of the physical comparison of details to other weddings on Pinterest. I was warped with trying to make our wedding aesthetically pleasing to the eyes of others… and it followed trends of other appearances that didn’t even match our hearts. These worldly & fleshy moments can weigh us down, but there was a beautiful opportunity to peek into the heart of our Father. The Lord stopped to recenter my heart, spiritually, in the middle of the driving force of completing wedding tasks. 

I was brought to the Word of Revelations and left with a beautiful imagery of the Bride of Christ.

“Let us rejoice and be glad

And give him glory! 

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,  

And his bride has made herself ready

Fine linen, bright and clean, 

Was given her to wear (REV 19:7, NIV)”

Right off the bat, I am no expert on Revelations and apocalyptic literature, but the imagery that Jesus is our Bridegroom coming back for His bride (the church) shakes me alive. I hope it does for you too!

The parallels of our earthly marital wedding weaves through the most majestic wedding banquet that is being prepared in heaven with Jesus. Much like biblical times & today’s times, the bride and groom are separated until the wedding day. The separation allows for preparation. 

Eventually, the wedding day will come where the groom comes for His bride. 

So in the midst of planning our beautiful wedding, the Lord continuously reminded me that the physical preparation of the earthly wedding to my husband ought to be similar to the spiritual preparation for the heavenly wedding banquet with Jesus. 

In the thick of the to-do list, I was reminded of these insights to share with you:

The details it took to get our own wedding day prepped & prepared, it was a reminder of the details we need to take care of before the arrival of Jesus. I got to wear a beautiful white dress in our wedding, and it was a reminder that spiritually we must long for all of our hearts to be white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). As we said our vows in front of a cross with nails & a crown of thorns, it was a reminder of the suffering love Jesus willfully bestowed for you and I. 

As we wrote our own personal vows, we are to be reminded of all the written promises the Lord has made for us in our Bible through and through. As we organized seating charts, we were reminded of hunger for those seats to be filled again for the ultimate wedding banquet of Jesus Christ. 

             Jesus is coming back. He is coming back for His Bride. His Beloved Believers.

Are we prepared? Are we ready? If we can be ready for another earthly wedding tomorrow, then let’s be prepared for Jesus’s wedding. 

We must prepare. We must get our hearts ready. We must clothe ourselves in white. We must get those who we love invited to the most divine wedding banquet of all. 

“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb! (REV 19:9)”

Weddings that we get to plan and weddings we get to show up to are lovely reminders of what is to come for us believers. My wedding day was so incredibly special & memorial with my husband, and a sweet reminder that the greatest has yet to come.

With all my heart,

Haley

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