Weddings

I love going through old pictures. I notice that hairstyles always seem to change (no repeats on Beehives held up with 2 cans of hairspray nor "shags" that should've only been for carpet) but clothing styles just seem to make periodic loops. My niece from Chicago and her husband were visiting over the weekend and she'd asked to see my old wedding pictures. After doing virtual gymnastics through crawl spaces and weight training in our arctic attic, I finally found the lone box of photos. Ugh. I see my tanning history in them and now don the wrinkled remains and leathery moles as an unattractive invoice. Oh well.

As I smiled at the pictures of a husband I barely knew then but am madly in love with today, I remembered how terrified and excited I was. Due to a near Halloween-level makeover in the past, I opted out of having someone else put on my makeup for my wedding day. Big risk with no insurance, but at least I had some control over the result. I leaned over the mirror at church cautiously adhering to the kindergarten rule of "staying within the lines" and put on a blouse over my wedding dress...just in case.

I was almost at the end of the whole procedure, when my hands began to shake from hearing the whispered alarm, "We're ready for you" from my nerves-of-steel wedding coordinator. Out from my fingers lept the black eyeliner and like a slow motion movie, I watched it fall against my shirt, then skateboard down the front of a long section of my spotless white wedding gown.

I sat there stunned at the black blemish from any wedding nightmare. There was no one to help, no microwaveable dry cleaner, not even a Shout wipe within my vicinity. The door behind me slid open a second time and I heard the music preparing the people for my arrival. I threw off the shirt and prayed a spasmodic "Oh God, help Scott not to notice!" and began my journey down the aisle, arm-in-arm with my dear stepfather.

You know the story. Scott never noticed the black roadway my eyeliner created down the front of my dress. In all of the photographs, the white of the dress was too brilliant to see the slightest blemish. The wrinkles of abuse were seeming reflectors of the silvery flashes from pictures being taken every few seconds. Nothing could rob the joy, nor taint the beauty of the day God created for Scott and I.

I was praying for the Lord's bride last night. Thinking about how excited and anxious He must be to come and call us to the wedding feast with Himself. Remembering the scriptures of His singing over us and knowing that if I could cry for joy in heaven, I would...weddings always make me cry. Especially when I know that the blackness of my sin, the stains of my iniquity, and the tears from transgressions that SHOULD litter the white garment I wear, has been washed by His blood and made brilliant by His pure perfection...it makes me cry. He sees nothing but the love of His life. A spotless bride. Nothing in our past, present, nor future, will rob the joy, nor taint the beauty of that day that God created for us...the fulfillment of our long awaited wedding day to Jesus.

Zep 3:17 "The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

Hos. 2:19 "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; 20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD.