One summer, I attended a beautiful wedding ceremony. The best part for me, as always, was seeing the bride come down the aisle with an inner radiance that gives her a kind of glow and bursts forth in her smile. Also, seeing the groom’s eyes get wide with delight and wonder and awe is a sight that never gets old. It’s like the love he feels inside spills out and becomes almost tangible. There’s always the hope that one day that will be me standing there with hope and wonder in my eyes, looking at my bride. But today is most definitely not about me. Or the Groom. Or even the Bride. It’s about Jesus.
I think of Isaiah 62:5. “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” The same way Mark looked at Julie when she walked down the aisle is the way God looks at you and me. That same feeling is the way He feels about you and me, but in His case He feels it for you and me all the time from eternity past.
God doesn’t just love you. He is in love with you. He is absolutely crazy and drunk with love for you. That’s the reason for the bridal imagery. He delights in you. He dances over you. He sings over you and woos you with tenderness and compassion.
I think that one day when I die, I will ascend up to heaven. I will be radiant in shining white garments. I like to think of a massive cathedral with God waiting for me at the end of the aisle. He will have that same look on His face as the bridegroom, one of delight and wonder and awe, and I will know then how perfectly I am loved by the King of the Universe.