pure. spotless. loved. bride.

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almost every girl that i know plans, thinks, dreams, hopes, creates, designs, searches, fantasizes, imagines, and waits for one specific day in their life: their wedding day. i'm not going to lie, i do it. i'm at the point in my life where many of my friends are in a dating relationship. at the moment, i can think of nine different people in my life who are engaged, and seven different people in my life who have gotten married in the last year. i'm just at that season of life. and yes, i do occasionally spend time thinking/dreaming/planing about that day in my own life, even though it is quite a ways off :) 

but this got me thinking, what is it about the "big day" that we are so excited about? is it the dresses? is it the cake? is it the people? is it the decorations? why are girls so enamored by this day that we spend so much time when we are little talking about prince charming and wedding gowns? I honestly think that its because as girls, we long to be found beautiful. we long to be someone worth fighting for. we long to be the delight of someones heart. this is how God has created us. our wedding day is usually the day when these longings are fulfilled. we get to dress up in white, which signifies purity and beauty, and join our life to the life of someone who promises us to love us for better or for worse, someone who knows our weaknesses and our mistakes but still loves us and delights in us and wants to become our protector. it is a beautiful day. i can't even tell you how many times i have cried at weddings because i'm so excited. i love seeing the pure joy and beauty that shines from the bride, and the sheer awe and delight that radiates off the groom as his bride is walking down the isle. its beautiful.

so thats a wedding. it is when a bride, pure and beautiful, is presented to the groom to be his. the bride and the groom delight in eachother. the groom becomes a mighty warrior, vowing to protect his bride at all cost. the bride becomes a loving partner and friend, vowing to respect and honor and obey her groom no matter what it takes. the pledge their lives to eachother. 

so why all this about weddings?

in case you don't know, the week before Easter is known as holy week or passion week (i've heard it both ways). this week is for preparation to remember first maundy thursday, then good friday, and finally celebrate Easter on sunday. and why do we celebrate Easter? because Jesus died for us. He fought for us. 

yesterday, my pastor mentioned this verse during his sermon:

"for i feel a diving jealousy for you, since i betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ" 2 corinthians 11:2

this passage is written by paul to the false apostles, and talking about the false apostles being led away from "a sincere and pure devotion to Christ". but it got me thinking, and then painted this picture in my mind. i'm going to try my best to describe it so that you can picture it as well.

there's a girl. she's sitting on the side of the road, in the pouring down rain and mud. her hair is matted to her face, and her clothes are hanging on her like they were three sizes too big. she's got blood dripping from the cuts on her wrist, which were her attempts to deal with pain, and has lost all sense of hope from her eyes. she's sitting on top of a suitcase. shes lost. shes alone. she doesn't know what to do. she was raised in a Christian home, but stopped believing in that stuff a while ago. but something made her remember it now. she falls into the puddle of water/mud and just whispers Jesus' name with tears running down her face. she sits there for a while just in a heap on the ground, helpless. 

got that?

now look up the road. lets say its a dirt road. and someone's walking down the road. i'm just going to clarify, this isn't Jesus. this is just another person. he walks by the girl on the road, and stoops down to help. she looks at him with utter despair, and he begins to talk with her. eventually, realizing that he can do no more on his own, he looks at her and says "come with me. i have something you need to see". knowing that she doesn't have anything else to do, she gets up and goes with him, bring her stuff with her. her suitcase full of secrets and hidden feelings, her hopeless eyes and bleeding wrist and over-sized clothes. 

he brings her to a building, and then into a room. he tells her that he wants to present her to someone. but first, he has something for her. its a dress. a beautiful, white, spotless, perfect dress. she is a bit confused. why would someone want her to wear this dress? it was so beautiful, and she was so not. it was so pure, and she was so not. she didn't deserve this dress. couldn't she just meet this person and not wear the dress? but no, he was insistent that she wear the dress in order to meet the person he wanted her to meet. so she puts it on, and he gives her a beautiful bouquet of spring flowers to hold. still a bit confused and a tiny bit scared, she follows him out of the room.

get where i'm going with this?

he stops in front of double doors. he turns and looks at her. "this is where you go on alone. you need to meet someone. but i cannot come with you, this is your own choice. i'll be here when it is over". he steps aside, leaving her before the doors with the choice to walk through or not. she felt a bit ridiculous. she didn't deserve this dress, or the flowers, or the kindness of this guy. and she was pretty sure she didn't deserve whatever was on the other side of that door, not with everything that she had done. she looked back at him. he had such joy, such pleasure, such excitement in his eyes. something made her want to trust him. so she did. she pushed open the doors, and walked in. 

she's in a small, old chapel. there are stained glass windows lining the walls on both sides of her, with the brightest sunlight she has ever seen shining through them. her eyes look down at her feet. there's a red carpet, scattered with flower pedals going all the way up to...wait. all the way up to a Person. all of a sudden, He's all that matters in this chapel. He was just standing there, staring at her, with a huge smile on His face. she didn't know who He was, but He seemed to know her. "you're here! oh, i'm so glad that you finally came! hurry hurry hurry, don't take your time, please walk swiftly. don't listen to the organ music, it's never on time anyways." she oddly found herself beginning to walk quicker, but still feeling a bit confused and ridiculous feeling. did He know who she was? she finally reached the front of the chapel, and He was still smiling. "please, please stop. okay, spin around. i must have a good look at you". she obeyed, and did a slow spin. "you, my dear, are so beautiful. so so beautiful." she was taken a-back by His words. her? beautiful? no way. He noticed the scrapes on her wrist that had dried up by now, and she thought she saw a tear in His eye. that's weird. why was He crying? most people just scolded her. He looked deeply into her eyes. "darling, you are beautiful to me. i'm so excited that you decided to come to me today. you are mine. i have created you, and i see you as beautiful and spotless and pure. i have fought for you, and died for you so that you wouldn't have to. please, let me be your all. i love you." she didn't know what to say. this Man wanted her. He love her. He fought for her. and after everything that she had done wrong, He still dressed her in white and saw her as pure and sinless. she looked into His eyes, His big caring loving eyes, and said one word: "yes".

hopefully you got the picture i was trying to paint, but i'm not much of an artist and painting is a bit of a difficult task to accomplish via words. but i tried.

essentially, we have been presented to Christ as a pure virgin. we are betrothed to Him. all of our sins are washed away before Him, and we have been dressed in white before Him. we are His. we are called to love Him, and honor Him, and glorify Him. we are called to give Him our hearts. when we are filled with His love, it is then that we can give His love in us to another human (like we do on our wedding day). God does delight in us. we are His. 

like many people i know, i wear a purity ring. it is a physical reminder of where my heart belongs. when i was 14 i made a commitment to God and my parents and my husband that i would keep my heart for my husband and remain pure for him. but that was only part of the promise. the other part, probably the more important part, is that i promised that my heart would belong to God. it is a reminder that even though i do not have a guy in my life right now, i am still betrothed to Jesus. i am His bride. i am His. and i always will be, even after i get married. my heart belongs to Him because He is my first love. and it is out of my love for Him, and the love that He bestows upon me, that i will be able to love my husband one day.

we are His bride. we are the bride of Christ. we have been presented spotless and blameless before Him, dressed in white, as a pure virgin. all praise and honor and glory to the God of creation for that, because He knows we do not deserve that. but He loves us anyways. i am so amazed. i am so blessed. His mercy and grace are so amazing. and i hope and pray that we are able to see, and accept, our identity in Him. we are free. we are beautiful. we are pure. we are spotless. we are His bride.