getting_ready

Getting Ready, by Gini Kittle

Our daughter Rachel was married this past weekend. As I sit writing this, she and her husband are on their honeymoon and I am on the home stretch of putting away all the countless dishes, vases, pitchers, tablecloths, etc. that were used at the reception!

We spent months in preparation for Rachel's wedding day! My mother hand-painted the invitations that we designed. Rachel took some vintage rhinestone pins that her grandmother let her play with as a little girl and had them incorporated into her headpiece, bouquet, and a bracelet she wore. We used tablecloths that my grandmother had crocheted on the tables and family heirloom vases and pretty glass pitchers and platters — everything had to have a certain "look" Rachel wanted to achieve. Details, details, details!

But all the attention to detail and all the time we spent in preparation pale in comparison to the time Rachel spent preparing herself for her loving groom as she wanted to be (and was!) one of the most beautiful brides ever!

This, too, is what we are called to as the bride of Christ. These are days of preparation. Revelation 19:7 says, “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.” With every passing day the marriage of the Lamb is getting closer, and the Lord is expecting “… a glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle or any other defect” (Ephesians 5:27). We need to examine our lives and remove any spots of worldliness we possess and eliminate every wrinkle of self-focus so we will be prepared for that fateful day and be altogether glorious in His eyes.