I have been thinking lately about how romantic relationships are a reflection or metaphor for Christ and the church. Ephesians 5 and the book of Revelation describe the church as the bride. The Song of Solomon, while it is a book about how to have a romantic relationships, is also clearly an allegory of the Lord pursuing his bride and her response to Him.
In Revelation 19:7 and 8, we are shown that at the end of the age, there will be a wedding supper of the Lamb. It says "Let us be glad and rejoice and honor him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She is permitted to wear the finest white linen.' (Fine linen represents the good deeds done by the people of God.)" Therefore, it seems to me that while we are the Bride of Christ, we are also engaged to Him at this time, awaiting his return for us. At that time, we will have our wedding. I wonder if this is like the Jewish tradition of betrothal that we see Mary and Joseph in before the birth of Christ.
So I've been thinking about how that impacts us all at different times in our lives. During our single years, how do we represent the Lord and his Bride? During our dating and courtship days? During our engagement for marriage? During our marriage? What does the Lord want us to learn about Him during those times in our life? How does our sin in those times mess up the picture of what He wants to show us?
I hope to blog about this in coming days. I'd love to hear comments from anyone reading this. Insights from the Word or questions about the topics or just comments from your own perspective. I think you can send comments privately or on my myspace page. I don't quite have that figured out yet. Maybe no one will read it. I just want to put it out there.
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