Marriage

I have had the privilege of witnessing and photographing many weddings throughout the years and everyone of them is a small symbol of how Christ will take His bride in the end. If you look closely at the bride in the picture, you can see a single tear of happiness running down her cheek. Such a beautiful moment where no one else existed at that moment but the groom. She was enveloped in his love and she felt secure in his arms and it overwhelmed her. 

I talked about a moment I had in my last post and I just wanted to expand on that intimacy we can have with Christ and God through the Spirit. I look at the picture above and I get teary eyed every time because it has what I imagine my personal meeting with Him to be like. That song and movie, I Can Only Imagine, comes to mind. In the picture I am the beautiful bride, washed clean and held by my beloved and tears of joy falling down my face. It says He'll wipe away all my tears but I want those kind of tears, those of pure joy and happiness. The day I meet Him face to face will be so sweet but we can have that connection here in this world as well. 

Jesus had that loving connection with the Father. So much so, He would often leave His followers to go off and be alone with Him on a regular basis. I know people who say, church is their recharge every week. In the world through the week, struggles, stress, adulting, kids and life come at us and some say all that takes away their joy so they need that fill up every week. God is not a gas station. He doesn't pack you a lunch full of Himself, then send you off to school only to come home hungry each evening. If we treat Him like that then we need some serious help. It's the genie syndrome again. Lord Grant me my wish of just making it through life this week and I'll be back next week to ask you again, cause I struggle out there on the battle field Lord. You don't know, Lord. My co-workers get on my nerves so bad everyday and don't get me started about my idiot boss who thinks she's a gift from heaven. If we go into church to fill up then we need to be on our knees in repentance now and ask Him for forgiveness. 

If I'm married, would my marriage last if I came home once a week and complained to my wife how bad my week went then asked her to wait on me, feed me and rub my feet. I don't think it would last a month if we treated our spouses that way but here we are treating our Heavenly spouse that way. 

His love towards us is 1Cor 13:4-7 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. 6Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Our love is the complete opposite and self-centered.  His love doesn't require our input though and He still pours out His love on us regardless of How we treat Him because His love is selfless. 

However, He wants more for us than to be filled, then be emptied. He wants us full of Him continually, non-stop all the time. It's the continual intimacy like the picture above shows. It will always show that moment of pure joy, frozen in time, never changing. We need that picture to be our lives always; always embracing and always full of joy. 

I thought once in my life that God was out there somewhere and that He didn't really care about me and I was left to fend for myself. I would go through the motions of being a Christian but on the inside I was empty. It changed when He changed my perspective, that He never leaves or forsakes but we leave Him instead. My last post on struggles explains that. 

For this post I leave you with this.

You are the workmanship of God. You are knit together by His Love. He adores you and wants the best for you. His arms are always open and He waits for your embrace. Leave your fear, doubts and distrusts behind as you come to Him with full trust and faith. He wants intimacy. He wants you to be with Him. He is our good Husband and He waits at the altar for us to walk down the isle to Him. Say, I do, right now and let Him take you in His arms.

To God be the Glory