For the First Time...

"The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.' Let anyone who hears this say, 'Come.' Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life."

--

Revelation 22:17

 

 

Waiting...

 

 

As Believers we are the Bride of Christ. We are waiting for our great Lover to come and take us away to be with Him forever. Jesus' love for us is so strong and crazy and absolutely beautiful. We have never seen Jesus, but we love Him. Our Lover has whispered His love into our hearts and that is why we have given our all to follow after Him. We may feel nervous and hesitent to welcome that long awaited day when we will see Jesus for the first time. What will He look like? What will He do? Will He be boring? Will He be too busy to take notice of us? Will He be handsome? Will He be friendly? Will I do sometHing stupid when I see Him? Will I be afraid when I see Him for the first time? Will I faint? What will He think when He sees me still so sinnful? Will He talk about all my sins? Will He rememeber how I have failed? Will I know what to say when I see Him? What if I cannot even think of words to say? Will I still be me? So many questions swirl around in our heads I am sure. They do in mine.

 

I have been blessed with such a wonderful perspective on this, though because Fidele and I fell in love before either of us had met in person. Before I had ever even seen Fidele, His love had captured my heart, and I knew I would one day marry Him. We waited and waited for the day to come when we would finally meet in person, and at times it seemed it would never arrive. However as we waited, Fidele and I had such a wonderful time getting to know each other better as we skyped, talked on the phone, and emailed. We didn't get to see each other in person, but we learned to know each other's hearts. We talked about the day we would meet for the first time and it seemed like a dream too good to be true. I remember even now as I boarded the airplane on my way to Cameroon, somewhat in disbielf that I would actually be seeing my dear Fidele. And then as I landed in Yaounde and made my way through Customs, I felt my heart fluttering and wondering what in the world is going to happen! Will I be afraid? Will I run the other direction when I see Fidele? What will He do when He sees me? Will it be very awkward? But do you know what? As soon as we saw each other, we just ran into each others arms! And it was the most wonderful time in my life! It didn't feel strange at all. All the questions that had filled my mind before had melted away because all I knew at that moment was that my Fidele loved me sooo much, and nothing else mattered.

 

I think the same will be true of our Lover Jesus when we see Him for the first time. Can His love be anything but absolutely crazy and beautiful?! Jesus' love is so deep that He died so that we could be His Bride. He took our filthy rags and gave us beautiful robes of His righteousness! When we see Jesus for the first time, I think we are going to be so caught up in His amazing love that everything else will fade from our view and we will be focused on our Lover.

 

With this perspective, I joyfully echo what the verse above says: "COME LORD JESUS!" May you also be filled with this same excitement and joy as we wait for our Lover to come.