My daughter's wedding is only fifteen months away.

She and her beloved have combed through the guest list several times already, and have decided to have a relatively small service and invite only family members. They can't let the guest list grow because of the small seating capacity of the chapel where they want the wedding to be held. They don't want the service to be too long, so they still need to make some difficult choices among all the music they want to have their friends perform during the ceremony. It seems to me, from what little I've overheard, that my daughter has ruled out all of the possible colors for the bridesmaids' dresses. Until the last few weeks, I had forgotten just how much effort and stress goes into planning a wedding!

When my wife and I got married, we limited the guest list to immediate family, with a few hand-picked musicians, and no bridesmaids or groomsmen. Rather than have a reception, we had a dinner for the invited guests. We both look back at our event fondly, but we both had forgotten most of the strain and hard work that went into planning even our very small nuptial.

Even so, my daughter's wedding will be small compared to my oldest niece's wedding several months ago, and her wedding was small compared to the elaborate event many of her friends arranged for their weddings. But these are all simple affairs compared to the social expectations for wedding feasts for upper class grooms in the first century Israel! Those parties would last for several days, and the groom, who hosted the event, would arrange large quantities of delectable foods and fine wines to go along with elaborate entertainment. In contrast to today's tradition, all the bride needed to do was to be dressed and ready for the event.

In this passage from Revelation, we are invited to be the bride at our wedding to Jesus Christ, and we are invited to join in what will be the ultimate wedding feast to end all wedding feasts. This metaphor appears often in the Bible because it describes our relationship with God in so many ways. It is Jesus, the groom, that chooses us and longs to have a relationship with us. It is Jesus who makes the arrangements and provides the blessings. All we have to do is to accept the wonders that God has prepared for us.

It is the simplicity of what little is required of me that causes me to think when I consider this matter, and I know I have not understood how incredible is the offer of this eternal relationship that I have received. Modern weddings take involvement from both marriage partners, and both can take credit for the resulting event, but I have no contribution to God's wedding feast except that I am willing to participate. I have not experienced a wedding feast lasting several days, and I certainly cannot conceive of a wedding feast to last for all eternity. The metaphor of a wedding also doesn't take into account that I am an unworthy and rebellious bride and should be rejected by Jesus Christ because of my sinful responses to His love.

But God prepares the banquet anyway, and has been preparing this great feast since before the universe was created. Each word God has spoken to people through the ages is a part of the invitation to join this celebration. All the wonders of heaven have been prepared for our benefit, and you and I will live forever with the One who loves us enough to die for us. This plea for us to agree to take part in the wedding is the most precious gift that we can receive! I need frequent reminding of how incomparably magnificent the eternal joy that God has prepared for me will be.