Here's Anna listening to some rocking epic power-ballads on Christy's new iPod!

The Bridegroom

When I was 21 and a junior in college, I was ready to marry Christy. We had talked about it for years, and I felt it was time, so one January night I approached her dad, Bill to ask for his blessing. The following is an account of that meeting:

Let me just say that I was super confident about this whole thing until we actually sat down in a booth and I looked across the table at Christy’s dad. When I looked him in the face, I froze like a dear in the headlights. What on earth was I doing?! Who was I kidding? I felt like a fifth grader asking my dad for the car keys. I mean, I was no man! I still loved Lucky Charms and Legos! If I could have had one wish it would have been a real, working light saber! I was just a stupid little boy looking into the face of this man who had held Christy when she was a helpless baby… the man who had wiped her tears and carried her on his shoulders… the man who had baptized her and had loved her for every second of her life… what was I thinking?

Well, long story short, I spent that entire dinner jawing about everything under the sun except my plan to marry Christy. I just got scared and he knew it too. He spent that whole evening looking straight through me with this amused look that said, “Give me your best shot, little dude.” We actually ate all our food, got the check and left the restaurant without me mentioning Christy at all. No kidding. Finally, as we were heading toward the car in the parking lot I stopped and said, “Bill, I want to marry Christy, and I would like to ask you for your blessing.” He laughed and laughed, finally saying, “I wondered how long it was going to take you!”

Well, Bill joyfully gave us his blessing and after Christy accepted my proposal I became something that has been my favorite station or title in this life… And if I won a million Oscars and Grammys, if I earned a hundred PhD’s… if the entire world united to name me the Prime Minister, President, Caesar and Grand Sultan of Planet Earth, not one of those titles would mean as much to me as this: That on a chilly January Saturday afternoon when she said “Yes,” I became a bridegroom. More than that, I became Christy’s groom. And there is no greater honor this world could bestow on me than that of being my wife’s man. You see, she is the Apple of my Eye. She makes my very heart beat. I know this might be cheesy, but my wife has this one smile… I mean, she has a million smiles, but she has this one in particular that is like pure, untainted and child-like joy bursting from the depths of a contented heart, and when I make that smile happen, I’m home.

The reason I tell you all of that mushy stuff is because there is something extremely mushy about Jesus that I am all worked up about this week. There is something about Him that is so cheesy that it’s absolutely wonderful… In John 3, a bunch of folks asked John the Baptist why he was losing his crowd to Jesus, and this was his reply: "The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete."

John calls Jesus “The Bridegroom.” Now, I know this might be kind of a hard thing to get your head around, but the reason that John calls Jesus ‘Bridegroom’ is that Jesus wants to be our groom… Yes, He’s our Maker. Yes, He’s the One who gave His life to save us, and yes, He is in control of all things, but here’s something else you should know about Him… He loves you like a Groom loves his bride. He came because of love for you and He wants to be yours and for you to be His.

You know, when I was talking to Christy’s dad about marrying her, he asked me, “Why do you want to do this now instead of waiting until you both graduate and have jobs?” Now, I probably could have come up with some reason that would have sounded really wise and well thought out, but the problem was, I hadn’t really thought it out, so I just answered honestly. “The truth is,” I said, “I just don’t want to live another day without your daughter.” It was about love! I just wanted a life with Christy. I wanted to take over responsibility for her. I wanted to provide for her and be the one who filled her heart and made her smile.

That’s the way Jesus feels about you. He wants to fill those empty places. He wants to take care of your needs. He wants to take over responsibility for your life, meeting all your needs and giving you true joy. He’s all the love you’re looking for and He’s the Bridegroom… He’s the One who longs to see you walking down the aisle toward Him, giving your heart back to Him. I can still remember my heart hammering when I saw her in that dress for the first time… my bride. Man, I loved her so much. Just think, that’s just an infinitesimal fraction of the way the God of the universe feels about you!


My Bride: