In the Dailies

The Well-Prepared Bride

December 6, 2007

“I’m never going to find a man to marry me!!!” After twenty minutes of hysterical crying, this is what my daughter said. She’s three. The scene continued for another twenty-five minutes.

Donning her “wedding dress” from last summer, she spent the morning chasing Zach around the house. At one point she literally tackled him to the ground. “You have to marry me now, Zachary!” Meanwhile, he repeatedly screamed “I don’t want to get married! I don’t want to marry you, Ellie!” He is only two and what boy wants to marry his sister?

Finally, I agreed to marry her. Yes, I see the social and doctrinal conflicts, but … well, there’s not much logic sinking in with a three-year-old who is convinced she’s an old maid forever doomed to singleness. It was the only way to calm her sobs.

The girl is obsessed with weddings. I would like to blame Katie and Ron (the bride and groom who graciously invited Ellie to be their flowergirl), but it’s not their fault. Not entirely. Now when she insists on having her wedding at a castle with lobster for dinner — because only real weddings have castles and lobster! — well, that will be their fault and we’ll probably send them a bill. But this is not their fault. Ellie is obsessed with weddings because she’s a girl. Girls love weddings. They love romance and fairy tales and knowing that some handsome fellow was created simply to love and care for them. Girls live to get married. They love to dream about happily ever after.

When Ellie was born I anticipated years of boy-craziness. I knew we would deal with the emotional roller coaster of searching for Prince Charming. If she’s anything like me, we’ll have our hands full. I knew it was coming, but I didn’t expect it to come so soon. My daughter’s wedding is already being planned … twenty years before the event.

A friend of mine, affectionately known as SpaghettiPie, wrote a wonderful Advent devotional. She compared the level of anticipation for Christmas between us and those in retail. Shouldn’t we be more excited about the birth of our Savior? Stores get ready so much earlier than we do! Maybe we have something to learn from them. And maybe we have something to learn from Ellie.

“‘Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.’ It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” — Revelation 19:7-8 (NAS)

Revelation tells what is to come. In this passage, the bride is the church. She is about to marry the Lamb, Christ Jesus. Ellie will spend the next twenty years preparing for her wedding. How much time will we spend preparing for ours? If we are believers, we are part of the church. That means we are the bride. Are we ready? Is our dress fully sewn from our acts of righteousness? Are we clean and adorned as we would like?

Mary and Joseph prepared for the coming of Jesus. We prepare for the coming of Christmas. We should also prepare for when Jesus comes again. He is returning and when He does He needs to find His bride ready.

The FW Writer’s Group (of which my friend is a member) has written a 25-Day Advent Devotional. I invite you to join in the preparation for Christmas: Reflections on Advent 2007.

Entry Filed under: wedding. .