Imagine that today is your wedding day, and you are the bride (guys you too...stick with me for a minute). You are standing just outside the sanctuary. Your Father is ready to walk you down the aisle. You are nervous but excited at the same time. Your Father leans over and whispers, "You'll be fine. I will always be with you." All of a sudden, you feel as if peace has been draped over you like a warm blanket. You know that your future won't always be easy, but it will be good.
Then, you hear the music build. The doors fly open as everyone stands and turns toward you. You see their smiles as they think about how beautiful you are. But you smile because you know that it was your Father who paid for this day to be so special. All of a sudden, you notice that something is very strange.
As you make your way down the aisle, you notice that your Groom looks different. You have pictured how this day would look your entire life, but this day is not looking anything like you pictured it would. Instead of the Groom wearing a tux, He is only wearing a filthy cloth wrapped around His waist. Where you imagined a bright smile would be, you only see the grimace of agony as blood drips from His beard to the carpet (which the church building committee was not happy about). And instead of Him standing proudly at the altar, He is anguishing from pain due to the nails in His hands and feet that are holding Him to a cross.
At first, you are not even sure this is the Man who proposed to you. But that isn't all that is strange about the ceremony...there is no minister! You look to your Father with a confused look on your face. He smiles, leans over, and kisses you on the cheek. Then, He walks up and stands before you and your Groom and motions for everyone to be seated.
After a few introductory remarks, your Father looks to the Groom and says, "Do you promise to love your bride, to give yourself up for her, to pray over and wash her in the Word, to love her more than you love your own body, to love and to cherish her 'till death do you part?"* The Groom slowly lifts His head as He struggles to breath. He turns to you, smiling as if the pain is all worth it, and says, "I do." It wasn't until that moment that it began to click in your mind that your Groom was giving up everything, even His life, to be united with you.
Now, your Father turns to you and says, "Do you promise to love your Husband, to submit to Him in all things, to respect and to follow Him wherever He may lead, to put His desires before your own, to love and to cherish Him 'till death do you part?"** As tears begin to stream down your face, you turn to your Groom and say, "I do." After actually saying those words which you had been rehearsing for weeks and months, you now begin to realize that this union will also cost you everything.
What happened next was something that you will never forget for the rest of your life. Your Groom struggles to straighten Himself and yells at the top of His lungs, "IT IS FINISHED!" But before you even realize what is happening the ground begins to shake like in an earthquake, and like a flash, the power completely goes out. It is so dark inside the sanctuary that you can't even see your own hand right in front of your face.
After about three minutes, the power comes back on. Everyone is checking on the person next to them to make sure that they are ok but wait...where did the Groom go? You can hear similar whispers in the crowd as others begin to wonder the same thing. Then, you hear the sound of a door opening and look toward the doors you entered through. Out steps a Man robed in white and shining like a great Light. You realize that this Man is your Groom! However, He looks different now. He is no longer scarred and bloody on a cross. He walks as one who has won a great victory, and your heart seems to almost burst the closer He gets to you. Your Groom walks up to you and holds your hand as He turns and nods to your Father as if to say, "You can continue."
With joy overflowing, your Father looks upon both of you and says, "With my power, I now pronounce you Husband and wife. You may now kiss your bride." In that moment, something changed inside of you. You knew that the rest of your life was going to be radically different. For so long, you had run from Him not understanding how He could love you after some of the things you had done. Until now, you did not understand why He pursued you the way that He did, but you are so glad that He did.
As you looked into His eyes, He smiled and said to you, "Even though life may be tough sometimes, I will always be with you and never leave you." Your smile grew even bigger as the both of you turned, hand in hand, to face the crowd. It still seemed so unreal, but you knew it was the real thing. Nothing had ever felt so real. After your Father shared a few final words, the two of you walked down the aisle and out the doors to begin your new life together.
*Ephesians 5:25-30
**Ephesians 5: 22-24
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