Our prayer journey to Israel
four years ago was all about birthing, and especially birthing twins. Our prayer journey to Italy developed a
wedding theme early on. As we drove
around the first Italian cities we visited, Milan and Florence, we began to see
brides and grooms and wedding parties on the sidewalks on their way to or from
a wedding.
We visited two churches, the Basicalla of St. Nicholas, and
the Santuario di Santa Rosalia on Monte Pellegrino in
Palermo, where we had to hurry with our prayer time because a wedding was
about to take place. As we prayed we
watched people bring in white flowers, ribbons, candles and roll out red
carpets for the brides to walk upon on their way to the alter. And God spoke to us about preparing Italy,
and ourselves, for the Wedding his heart is longing for. So we prayed and prepared the churches for
the weddings about to take place, the immediate ones in those places, and the
readiness of the Bride, God’s Church for her wedding to the Lamb of God.
In Venice we sat on some shaded benches overlooking the
water and along came a stunning bride and groom with a troop of professional
photographers who posed them and took photos.
We watched as tourists followed the troop and captured their own photos
of a bride and groom they would never know.
There’s something about a wedding, fresh hope for a new life filled with
love, alongside someone who will know you and be known by you. Even with the disastrous global divorce rate,
and the high rate of infidelity in Italy and around the world, the wedding is
an in your face declaration that this union will be different. This time the vows mean something. This time the two will become one for always
and will make an impact on the world as a couple that neither could have made
as individuals. This time the man and
woman will not cave in to their conflicts, but will work through them and
become stronger and more glorious in spite and because of their wounds along
the way.
Because it’s all about a wedding. Jesus coming to this world and loving to the
point of ultimate sacrifice, to redeem the very ones who called for his death,
who heaped upon him the sins he carried – none his own. But it’s bigger than that. It’s not only the individual lives that come
into the Kingdom. Jesus longs to sew
together the churches, to form his Bride, to adorn her in robes of
righteousness, jewels of service to God and one another, to present to himself
a Bride without spot or wrinkle.
So the day will come when the Spirit and the Bride say “Come”.
Come Lord Jesus.
It was so neat seeing all those lovely brides and grooms. Such a perfect picture of the relationship the Lord wants with us.
ReplyDelete