The Church as Christ's Bride

We Will Dance

Sing a song of celebration
Lift up a shout of praise
For the Bridegroom will come
The glorious one
And oh, we will look on his face
We’ll go to a much better place

Dance with all your might
Lift up your hands and clap for joy
The time’s drawing near
When he will appear
And oh, we will stand by his side
A strong, pure, spotless bride

(Refrain)We will dance on the streets that are golden
The glorious bride and the great Son of man
From every tongue and tribe and nation
Will join in the song of the lamb


We sang this song in church this Sunday. It’s never really struck me before like it did this time, but it just clicked with me. Jesus is our Groom, our husband-to-be. “We” the church – all believers in Him – are His Bride. Hmm. Think about that for a minute. All kinds of people have lots of different views on what marriage should be, but Scripture has laid it out pretty plainly what the husband and wife’s roles are: distinctly different, but both necessary.

Anyway, singing this song made me think of my wedding day. I was so excited. Especially after the opening songs, and all the attendants were already up front, and they had just closed the doors to the sanctuary of the church so I could make my entrance with my father. I was so excited I was jumping up and down. In my Wedding Dress! And, after all the many many hours of preparation to be ready for that day, why shouldn’t I be excited?

We were engaged in October, 2004, and married July 23, 2005, and that whole time frame was filled with much tender thought and preparation for this big day. The church, the flowers, the cake, the caterer, the invitations, the guest list, the dress! So many details needed to be attended to. This doesn’t even count the preparation of myself the day of: getting my hair and makeup done, manicured and pedicured, putting on that big wedding dress that required undergarments I don’t even know the names of! All this in addition to every day life: as a Purdue student, as a part-time employee at a bagel shop, as a woman engaged to the man who was building our home. This was an extra job! It was a lot of work to make sure everything was just right!

And so, remembering the ecstatic feeling I had as I was preparing to walk down the aisle that day after all the months of hard work and preparations and loving thoughts of how wonderful it would be to be married to my soon-to-be husband, I felt a little bit ashamed singing that song in church on Sunday. I mean, I’m excited to be Christ’s bride….but certainly not jumping up and down with a silly grin on my face excited. And as for preparations: essentially nonexistent! I mean, sure, I go to church on Sundays, and pray, and try to read the Bible somewhat frequently…..but this is not the all-consuming, using every-spare-minute preparation that I demonstrated in preparing for my Wedding day in July 2005.

With that, I hope to be able to change my focus, and bring it more towards Jesus and the things He is doing in my life and the lives of others. I want to actively pursue serving Him more, to prepare for that day when the Bridegroom comes. So many people don’t yet know Jesus, and that day will not be a happy day for them – how can I sit complacently and ignore that fact? It is so important to share, and it’s just too easy to forget that. So, my prayer today is that God would give His Bride, the Church (including me!) an increased desire to be faithful to Him and His lifesaving work, and to demonstrate that increased desire by behaving as a dearly cherished Bride. Thank you, God, for always being faithful to us, even when we are not faithful to you by letting other things get in the way.

We Had a Rough Beginning . . .

. . . to this week! On Monday afternoon Cora was a mess - she vomited off and on all afternoon for about 6 hours! Poor baby - luckily she was able to sleep through the night and after that showed no further symptoms.

Then Tuesday evening I started feeling nauseous and after going to bed was up every hour or every half hour going to the bathroom, starting at 10pm lasting til 3:30am - talk about a rough night!!

Before the alarm went off Wednesday morning (pre-5:30am!) Matt had to get up and was having the same thing - stomach flu nasty stuff.

We both were very pitiful all day Wednesday, slept for most of it.

Did I mention the snow storm? Oh yes, we also had a LOT of snow and ice and then more snow, making it necessary to plow our driveway Tuesday (should've done it Wednesday, but were way to sick to do more than just the necessary chores). Doing chores was no picnic between having to brave the precipitation as it was still snowing at the time and feeling so sick (Thank you, Matt - you're so brave and tough!).

You might say it was bad timing to have the snow and sickness at the same time, but I say our God was watching out for us. If it hadn't have been for the snow, Matt's mom would've been at work and wouldn't have been able to take Cora for us on Wednesday - that was a huge help - we were able to rest and puke all day without having to worry about caring for Cora too!

So this week has started out rough - but over Tuesday night I couldn't help but be grateful that while I felt TERRIBLE at the time, at least I wasn't a cancer patient dealing with chemo that got sick with every treatment (or some other health problem that is way worse than short term stomach flu!). What I was dealing with was just temporary, but a great reminder (thanks, God?!) to be thankful for the good health I do have most of the time.

After a good night's rest, Matt's back at work, and Cora and I are doing fine at home today.

first ever blog post

So I have set up a blog.

The purpose of this blog is to share my ideas about the things that I do, because I think that what I do collectively is unique from what others are doing.

I don't know how many people out there is a wife, mother, farmer, daughter, sister, daughter-in-law, home-canner, horse owner, goat owner, livestock guardian dog owner, seamstress, gardener, Christian, cloth diaperer, breastfeeding supporter, meat eater, coupon clipper, cook, baker, and so on....ALL at the same time. I think many many people do several of the above, but there don't seem to be too many people I know of that are doing EVERYTHING on that list.

Of course, there is no reason for everyone to do everything, but I do like to think that I know a little bit about a lot of things that could help others. And why else are we put on this earth, if not to help others in this life and direct them to Jesus for the next?

You can expect to see some interesting posts from me forthwith, perhaps a few tutorials, that hopefully you will find useful for you in your life.

It's a big part of mine!