Pondering Life - The “Bride of Christ”
What does it really mean to be the “Bride of Christ"? If you have ever been to church, you have heard this phrase thrown around like it was a household name. What does this really mean anyway, and how does it affect me in my personal life?
I watched a movie today, Good Will Hunting. It has a lot of strong language in it, and some crude sexual jokes, but the story line is near and dear to my heart. The gist of the film is about a kid who is in trouble and is heading down the wrong path in life. Will needs to find himself, who he really is, what his passion is, and what path he is going to choose.
He sees a psychiatrist, court ordered, who ends up sharing with him that one thing in his whole life was worth living for. All of the heartache, all of his sacrifices, all of his missing out on fun times with his friends, all of it was worth it for this one thing - spending the time he did with his late wife.
He talked about how when you find someone worth loving you should love so deeply and take the risk to become vulnerable that you expose all of your imperfections to each other, intimately knowing every little thing about each other. He talked about how she moved him, and how he was inspired and challenged by her. He talked about waking up next to her feeling complete and completely and truly happy. He talked about how he missed the little imperfect things about her. It was not the big things in her life, but the little stuff about her that he loved and missed the most.
Then it hit me, she was his bride, and he loved her with all of his being. She was worth it all to him, all of the hard times, the heartache, the risks he ever took, everything he ever went through in life did not compare to the way he loved her.
This is the way God loves us, His Bride.
He longs to commune with us in every way, intimately knowing every little thing about us, all of our imperfections. He loves us so deeply, He longs for us to be moved by Him, and inspired and challenged by Him. He longs for us to wake up beside him and feel completely and truly happy, feeling at one with Him, feeling His peace. He longs to comfort us with his breath, so near to us, knowing that He is right there with us at all times. He loves us so completely, He wants us to be so in love with Him, and completely satisfied in His arms that we will do anything He asks of us knowing that His love is there to guide us.
This is what it truly means to be the “Bride of Christ” - that we surrender to God the father so completely that our life is driven and purposed by His love. Our being is so deeply intertwined with Jesus Christ, His son that we live and move as one with Him. We can feel the Breath of His Holy Spirit on our necks so close to us that we know His peace deep within our souls. This is how being the “Bride of Christ” affects me in my personal life.
