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We hear much of the wedding day, of great, jubilant crowds rumbling like a dozen waterfalls or rolling thunder. They have stopped running and, at long last, accepted true love. "Alleluia!" they cry. "The Lord our God, sovereign over all, has entered on his reign! Exult and shout for joy and do him homage, for the wedding-day of the Lamb has come! His bride has made herself ready, and for her dress she has been given fine linen, clean and shining" (Rev. 19:7-8).

Ah: the bride. Finally she is made new. God's people bear renewed bodies; bodies sown in humiliation but raised in glory, mortal bodies clothed with immortality (1 Cor. 15:43 and 53). And so suns and moons, rocks and trees, all creation drawn into the heart of God, consummating the praise for which it was made (Ps. 148:5-6). Consumation is what weddings are all about.

Soon, very soon, the wedding of all weddings will begin. Heaven will crash open and the bridegroom appear on a white horse. God's people may yet be panting from their headlong dash away from him, but they will gather breath to shout.

"'Come!' say the Spirit and the bride.

"'Come' let each hearer reply" (Rev.22:17)

This article originally appeared in the Feb. 3, 1984, issue of Christianity Today. At that time Rodney Clapp was CT's editor of arts and sciences. He is now editorial director for Brazos Press.

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Don't miss our other Valentine's Day CT Classics, "What Hollywood Doesn't Know About Romantic Love" and "Bonhoeffer in Love."

For more information on Valentine's Day and it's history visit Christianity Today's Holiday area and read "Then Again, Maybe Don't Be my Valentine | Does Saint Valentine's Day have its origins in Christian tradition?"

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February (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45