Who is more beautiful than a bride, dressed for her wedding day? The dress, hair, accessories, everything is all perfect and lovely. Every detail has been thought out, including the location and setting. Of course, we can think of weddings that aren’t perfect and of marriages that didn’t last. But, oh the anticipation of utopia and the perfect relationship and the promise of a bright future are powerful and strong on the day of the wedding.
Weddings fill us with a sense of what could be. It fills us with a longing to belong to something worthwhile, lasting, and nurturing. Unfortunately, we have all experienced or witnessed that this is not always the case and the promise of something lasting and wonderful is not always true. Perhaps this is why the marriage described in the book of Revelation is so inspiring. There it describes the marriage of Christ to His bride.
Come to find out, we can all be the bride of Christ. It is amazing that somehow God has enough room in God’s house that we may all enter into the marriage chamber with the Christ.
In the Old Testament and in the book of Hebrews we learn about the Most Holy Place. It is here that we find the presence of God. Jesus told many parables speaking of a wedding feast. Revelation talks about the New Jerusalem. All of these things are symbolic and tell us about how we may be in relationship with Source. They describe an intimate knowing relationship with God.
Paul talks about those who choose to be in relationship with God as forming a living temple. We are the temple or dwelling place of God. In another place, Paul speaks of the secret of an in-dwelling Christ. Jesus repeatedly announced that the Kingdom of God is here. All of these statements give us a glimpse of the fact that God wants to live within us. We are the temple that the power and presence of God wants to live within.
The heart is the temple of God. It is the bridal chamber where the bridegroom meets with the bride. It is the Most Holy Place where the marriage of our hearts takes place with the love of our soul—the Christ, our Redeemer.
When we understand that the marriage between Christ and ourselves takes place within our hearts and it is here that the Kingdom of God begins, it opens the door for understanding that truly we are God’s hands and feet in this world. God works through us in the present world and we help to bring Heaven down to earth.
Rather than long for a distant marriage in some utopian land, we are offered a marriage today. The scriptures invite us to step into an intimate relationship with God now. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone will open the door, I will come in and eat (the marriage supper of the lamb) with them.” It is a marriage that never disappoints.
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