MAY 4, 2015
The Best
Wedding Ever
The
marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. —Revelation 19:7
Read:
Revelation
21:1-8
Within the last 800 or
so years, a new custom has been added to the Jewish wedding ceremony. At the
very end, the groom crushes a wine glass under his foot. One explanation of
this is that the shattering of the glass symbolizes the destruction of the
temple in ad 70. Young couples are encouraged to remember,
as they establish their own homes, that God’s home had been destroyed.
God is not homeless,
however. He has just chosen a new place to live—in us, His followers. In the
metaphors of scripture, believers are both the bride of Christ and the temple
in which God lives. God is fitting His people together to build a new home that
will be His permanent dwelling place. At the same time, He is preparing the
bride and planning a wedding that will include all of God’s family from the
beginning of time.
Our part is easy though sometimes painful. We cooperate with God
as He is at work in us to make us more like His Son Jesus. Then some day, at
the best wedding ever, our Lord will present us to Himself without spot or
wrinkle. We will be holy and without blemish (Eph. 5:27). This wedding will
bring an end to all sorrow and suffering.
Finish then Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee. —Wesley
The return of Jesus is sure.
INSIGHT:
Our eternal home is so different from our current earthly home that it is described
by what is missing rather than by what is present—no tears, sorrow, death,
crying, or pain. “The former things” (v. 4) of this earth will be no more.
Source: Our Daily Bread 2012