Two Brides

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of attending the weddings of two friends. Because I was literally running from one event to the other, I really didn't have time to take many pictures. However, I did get one picture of each of the brides. Seeing the contrast of the two, made me think of many things this week about being the Bride of Christ.

Each bride was radiant and beautiful. I caught them for a photo at different times during their wedding. One has her bouquet, the other was coming in from outside the hall and her bouquet was in on the bridal table. One has the appearance of being "plainer" than the other, but that is just because of the "angle" I took the picture at. If you had seen the back of that bride, her veil was adorned with beautiful pearls, her dress had rhinestones going all the way down the center seam of the back - which went into a self-train.

All of these thoughts made me think of how UNIQUE each of us are as the Bride of Christ, and yet there is something that makes us all alike... we are all brides~! One of the brides had a big, flowing two-toned bouquet; pinks and whites. She could "do" the big, flowing bouquet, as she is very tall. The other had a stem-wrapped style of very brightly-colored flowers - as was the entire setting for her whole wedding.

Some of us shine more brightly and publicly, while others are more in the background, doing things for the Kingdom that everyone doesn't necessarily "see". We must be who we are and not try to be someone else.

One more thing I found to be interesting, was the fact that both of these brides had a little different version of the same common name. Does that not remind you of the Church of Jesus Christ? (I am referring to Bible-teaching churches of different denominational names.)

We are all preparing to become the bride mentioned in Revelation 21:2 (NLT).

"And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband."