My Bride-Groom

This day was a gift. It was a gift in the midst of 2 very busy lives that rarely have time alone. This breath-taking, beautiful fall afternoon in Paris with my husband was a lavish reminder of God's love...and I have been thinking a lot about love today. I have been thinking a lot about how love doesn't always shine on us in beautiful settings like this one. In fact, I dare say love is often most beautifully revealed when life isn't as picturesque as it was this day in the French countryside.

On this Valentines Day, I haven't been able to get my mind off one of my most favorite love stories. A story that when I heard it retold by this author I was studying, I found it hard to keep my composure. It is a story of love and redemption, and in short it goes like this...

She was young and in a terrible relationship. They were on again, off again, on again, off again. Each time she was with him she felt guilty for participating in such a sinful relationship, and when she was apart from him she longed to have back the sense of security she thought he gave her. And then she got pregnant. Now what? What would she do? How could she live with that? She was a Christian woman (teaching bible study) and living a very different, secret life behind closed doors. So she chose abortion, and then hated herself even more, and finally left the man for good.

Then she met another man, a godly man that she fell in love with. He too fell in love with her and she feared everyday that he would find out about her past and her sin. She drove herself mad with worry and fear, everyday fighting the conflict inside her. She loved him and wanted him to know about her life and past, but knew that he would turn and run in disgust at who she really was inside if he ever discovered the truth. And so she hid and suffered until she could not take it anymore. She recalled the day she told him the truth as terrifying. She paced back and forth in her living room saying over and over again, "I just have something to tell you and I am so afraid". She had herself worked into such a knot of hysteria, when finally she couldn't take it anymore and blurted out all the truths and realities of her past, in full anticipation of his immediate departure. As she finally gained the courage to look up at him, he was on his knees, and he said, "Will. You. Marry. Me."

What a perfect heavenly reflection of the Father's love for us, and may I boastfully say for me. Though my story isn't the same as this woman's, it contains the same predicament, a desperate girl in need of a loving Savior. For He knows all of our dirt, all of our garbage, all of our tangled messes. He sees the lies of our lives, and the darkness of the pits from which we dwell. He sees deeper than our freshly pressed clothes, new manicure and flat ironed hair...and loves us regardless. And as if that isn't enough, He goes deeper and more intimate still, and says to the one on her knees, trembling with fear, "Will you marry ME?". And so for that I am grateful and eternally in love with my Bride-Groom.