The Wedding Feast

Preparations...Decorations...Invitations...God chose the cultural avenue of the wedding to describe the Grande Finale of His plan to gather and unite us with Himself at the end of mankind's timeline as he knows it.

I've been pondering our timeline as recorded in God's word...the creation of the world, the story of Adam and Eve and how sin entered the world. I learned these stories as a child. All my life I've heard about the promise of a Messiah, the long awaited for Savior who'd redeem fallen mankind, giving us all a second chance at reconciliation with our Creator God who made us eternal beings. You and I are on this timeline too. We each have a life story. Is God in it? Do you see His hand? Do you feel His Spirit? Have you experienced His steadfast love and still small voice? How about His hand of discipline? His rod of correction? It's a tug here, a re-direction there. Think of a shepherd's staff, he doesn't beat us with it, He guides us with it. He's gentle, his burden is light, He wants to teach us about Himself in love.

We've heard the Christmas story, the Easter story, and all the stories in between and they are wonderful, amazing, and miraculous. They are not hard to believe. What's hard to believe is that God is still waiting to gather us. This is a long wait. Jesus said many would scoff in the last days of His return because we're gonna start questioning, "Where is He?"

But...the joy is in the waiting...the anticipation...the preparations, the decorations and the beautiful invitation that still sits on the table for each one of us alive today. You can invite all your friends. This isn't an elite invitation just for a few nor is it gonna be sold out with no room...yet. It will be, when the doors of our timeline close one day, as we join Him at the long awaited for wedding feast.

I've been teaching Bible stories to kids for the past month and when I started teaching, I was thinking to myself, "These lessons are so basic and I've heard them for what feels like a thousand times! How is this going to be exciting for the kids to hear them yet again?"

But the more I dig into Scripture, the more verses I read, the deeper my understanding becomes and then I am able to translate that excitement to my students. I never start my study very excited, I'll admit. It feels rather mechanical. But as I get into it and start praying and asking God questions....hard ones, like, " Why weren't you more direct in revealing yourself to people, God? "

Or, "Why don't you zap more people like Saul with a bright light and just say here I am, worship me." But then I remember, you did. It wasn't like you needed your ego worshipped though, like we are tempted to do with one another.

The worship you ask for is deserved and for our good. Because if we don't put you at the center of our Universe in thanksgiving and worship, we'll put something defective and by the time we're done, we are so lost! So instead, your angels showed up in the sky above a lowly field of sheep with shepherds and it was bright, beautiful and holy. All was still, quiet and hushed. You broke into our atmosphere with a grand appearance and it was scary. So scary that the angels needed to reassure the shepherds. They got up and went to see baby Jesus, the Messiah, who'd been born into the ugly, harsh reality of human life apart from God....except He was God. More questions. Why was He veiled in human flesh? Why not a once and for all triumphant display of your glory and appearing? Well, for starters, we'd all be dead instantly. You cannot dwell with sin. You had to grow up in a human body, exercising complete and perfect behavior, always following the voice of God, which was really your inner voice because you were God.

We know the truth now but people didn't get it back then. It was a slow unveiling of yourself before all of mankind and whatever principalities hang out in the air that we never see, thank the Lord, we'd all probably be scared out of our wits.

Then you showed up in the temple when you were 12 years old to teach and share your love and wisdom with the elite, the men who were supposed to be shepherding their flocks but were self absorbed with power, fame and wealth.

When your parents thought they'd lost you and came back looking for you, you tried to explain respectfully what you needed to do but they didn't quite get it and you respectfully obeyed them as a teenager should.

There's so much we don't know about you and your childhood and your growth in your twenty something years, but we know you died for us when you were 30, about Charlie Kirk's age. Now that I've seen and heard the passion with which Charlie tried to get people to understand your plan, you must have had the same fiery passion when dealing with the Pharisee's, and the same kind of gentleness when dealing with the broken, injured, diseased and forgotten.

Do I have the time to help the weak and powerless? Do I help to heal the broken and wounded in this world? Do I care about other's pain as deeply as you? You've spent 1000's of years in relationship with us as a people group, when are you coming back? Is the wedding feast ready?

I've got my invitation, I RSVP'd. I'm not so sure I feel good in my fancy garments because I keep getting tripped up. I can't do what I want to do. I try and I fail. I grieve. I am broken. Will you still want me? My heart aches. I long for relationship and wholeness. I am incomplete. But you see me. You notice me. You love me anyway. I try to fill the emptiness in my heart only to come up empty again and again. But I've got my tattered invitation and I'm holding on for dear life. It's my only hope for deliverance. I'm still wearing my fancy clothes but they are torn and dirty and I can't afford to buy anything new. But in my heart I know I love you, I listen to you. You are there and your'e faithful. You never break your promises. You let me get angry at you. You let me break down in tears and let me cry. You let me have my way until I turn to you again in submission. You are trustworthy because you never hurt me, you always uphold me no matter what. I can hardly wait for the wedding feast! But somehow, somewhere I'm gonna need a hot shower and brand new clothes before I attend. I wish I could be of more help. I love to decorate but no one else likes my style. I'm overly creative and I get distracted easy and lose my focus so sometimes I can't remember where I put what I wanted to decorate with. I'm sorry Lord, I had so many big visions and dreams I thought I could help, but feel very small in the grand scheme of things. But if I could, I'd do anything for you. But I just keep hearing you say, come, there's plenty of room and we have an eternity to get everything figured out and you'll have plenty of time to be creative and decorate. There's gonna be lots of feasting, lots of time to host and care for all those I've created and see all I've done. It's gonna be OK. Just come!