This weekend Stunner and I went to a wedding. We actually got to go to it, neither of us had any responsibility at it, which was so nice. We arrived & my 27 dresses self is of course eyeing all things, and making sure we abide by all the "rules". We sat down and shortly after we arrived, this cute little girl who was all bows & curls & pearls strode over and started to say hi, but quickly realized that Stunner was in fact not her Uncle Dan. [its the beard, it gets people] She looked startled for a brief second but recovered quickly and she ended up sitting in front of us which was a delight for me because of what happened next.
As people continued to enter the church & sit, the little girl and her sister would bounce between family members on their row, all the while asking "Where is the Bride?!?" and looking around waiting to see if they could find her. Her mom would gently shush her and say, "She's coming, she will come in just a minute." And they would continually glance to the back of the church in sweet anticipation. Finally after several moments, the music changed, the mothers stood & then the bride appeared. These sweet sisters craned their little necks to get a glimpse of the beautiful bride as she came down the aisle. And in the moment she passed by she said "There she is mommy, there's the Bride!!!"- the smile on her face was one of sheer joy! I smiled to myself, knowing how magical a wedding must feel at that age. It really is like a fairytale.
In those quiet reflective moments as the entire room focused on a bride joining with her groom I began to think about the parallel of us as sinners, desperately loved and relentlessly pursued by a redeeming Savior. Like a man pursues a woman in a relationship with the intent to join with her as one, as a new creation in marriage, so God pursues us. All too often I lose sight of that. I get too busy, too distracted, too tired to look and watch and seek with anticipation. I'm not standing on a chair waiting for just a little glimpse of a beautiful bride in a white dress. I'm too distracted by the things that went wrong at work, or by the petty argument I got in with my sister, or a myriad of other things. Then there are these gentle reminders that God is still there, still pursuing me, still gently giving me grace & mercy when I desperately need it.
That's the thing I think I am most thankful for- that God was there in the beginning. His character is exactly the same today as it was when he set the stars one by one in the sky. The same God who spoke the whole of creation into existence spoke me into existence. He knows my name, and He delights in me. He knows my deepest darkest fears & my greatest joys- and through it all, every single moment He is still the same. He is constant. He still pursues me. When I really stop to think about that- it completely humbles me & blows me away at the same time.
My favorite thing at weddings isn't the fancy dresses, the flowers, or even the silly dances people do as they come down the aisle. My favorite thing is to watch the groom's face as he sees his bride coming towards him. It's such a sweet intimate moment and it's something that can't be denied, that joy, it's irreplaceable. I think that's how God feels about us- deep abiding love and overwhelming joy. His steadfast love rescues us and we become one for all eternity. In the end, really and truly, He is all we ever need. We just have to trust, we have to slow down & have faith, like a little child waiting for just a glimpse of the bride. I want to work hard to remember to have that childlike faith, to wait in anticipation, even for just a glimpse of the goodness of God- because it's everywhere, we just have to open our eyes and see it.
