Okay, okay, well I picked out a wedding dress. With Kate’s help, of course.
Let me back up.
One of the best parts about the World Race is doing life with people who come from such different backgrounds and with so many different interests, but all enter into this crazy life we live, together. And that isn’t even including the people we meet in each country!
This is the case with my friend Alyssa. She is a phenomenal seamstress and has sewn the majority of clothes she owns, and most of what she has with her on the Race. In addition to this, she is an expert at creating vintage time-period dresses from any decade with all the detail and care of an original. So, when she had the opportunity to befriend a seamstress here in Thailand, she took it! And, because you never get to do anything alone on the Race, Alyssa introduced me to this new friend, Kate, as well.
Kate is wonderful. She’s working on her English and while not quite fluent, she’s very easy to understand and such a joy to talk to. One day while visiting with her in her dress shop, I commented on how beautiful the dresses are that she creates and sells for weddings. She thanked me for my compliment and asked, “Want to try?”
Uh, Yes.
When someone offers you a beautiful handsewn dress to try on, the answer is always yes.
So, back to the days of playing dress up in front of the mirror I went!
And Kate didn’t disappoint. Now, I’m a little bigger than your average Thai woman, but Kate was able to find a few dresses that turned me into a little girl playing princess with her mom’s heels. Complete with jewelry and gems, I went from world racer to Thai bride. Kate even showed me the proper way to pose.
I began to think. Brides, no matter the culture, go through such care and effort to adorn themselves beautifully for their wedding day. After all, they say it’s one of the biggest days of your life. And for that day, the bride is a princess.
So, what does it mean that we, the people of God making up the church, are the bride of Christ? Countless times in scripture, we are referred to as a bride waiting for her wedding day. Scripture is littered with illustrations of a wedding, a marriage, and a bride being prepared for her groom to come. We know that this refers to the day Christ will come back to earth and we will be united to him forever, like a bride and groom, united as one on their wedding day.
We, the church, are Christ’s bride. We too adorn ourselves in preparation for our wedding day, when Jesus returns to this earth to be united with us forever.
“Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Colossians 3:12
More than beautiful dresses and jewels, we clothe ourselves with the character of God listed in this verse.
“Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.” Romans 13:14
Romans tells us that the character of God referred to in Colossians is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one in whom we clothe ourselves so that day by day we look more like him, preparing for the day we will meet him and be united forever.
But, we have a little help.
“I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding or a bride with her jewels. The Sovereign Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise him! His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, with plants springing up everywhere.” Isaiah 61:10-11
We’re called to clothe ourselves in Christ, the very character of God.
But in God’s mercy, he does not make us do this alone, nor could we if we tried.
When Christ died and rose again, he gave his identity to us; his salvation, his righteousness, his holiness. Now when God looks at us who are in Jesus, he sees these things. He sees Jesus, beautiful and perfect. Christ has given us his righteousness so that we are made perfect and spotless; brides awaiting our wedding day.
It is a process of already and not yet. We are already made perfect in Christ, but it is not yet fulfilled until he comes again. Until then, we have to make the choice to remove the garments of the world and clothes ourselves in Christ, the robe freely given to us when he died on the cross. We are already the perfect bride clothed in the things of God, but he has not yet come to celebrate the wedding.
But he will.
And as we clothe ourselves in Jesus each day, we will be ready.
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready.” Revelation 19:7
The wedding will come and it will be the biggest party either side of heaven has ever seen. Let’s get dressed. Let’s get ready. Clothe yourself in Jesus. Our wedding day is coming.
