Last week’s royal wedding on April 29,2011, was all about a beautiful bride. For several years she had been carefully taught, groomed, and beautified so that the world would be impressed and amazed at the sight of her. This young woman was trained to deal with the press, to be poised at all times, and to dress and act like a member of the royal family. Delighted to work for the royal family, experts worked together to ensure that she would be breathtaking on her wedding day. Though already beautiful, her appearance was refined by the work of many experts: her teeth were whitened and straightened, she was attractively tanned, her figure was perfected, her hair and clothing were arranged and fitted to her by a staff of hairdressers and tailors. Months and years of work were dedicated to preparing her for this special moment. It is without a doubt that some discomfort went into her preparation. Aside from all of this preparation, the fact remains, she still entered the church as a commoner and left as a royal princess. However, this is a physical wedding and it will pass away. But there is a royal wedding that will last for all eternity, the union of Christ and His church.

Reflecting on the bride of Christ, I realize that it is easy to be careless and lose focus on the ministry of the church as the bride is groomed, trained and made beautiful for Him. I for one, need to labor more seriously. We all desire to see the perfect bride coming to Christ, but there will be effort and work required in the preparation. Of course, our work is completely inadequate without God’s Holy Spirit and power. We cannot be lazy or self-centered as the day and the hour of the coming of the Lord approaches.

Nevertheless, Great Britain’s beautiful bride entered the church as a commoner but left as a princess. She became royalty by her marriage to the crowned-prince. Her authority and riches came because of her union with the British prince and not by any effort or virtue of her own. The prince’s authority made her beauty and poise important because she was on display for the whole world as a member of the royal family. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit is continually refining Christ’s Chosen, the church, who is on display for the entire universe.

Finally, the day will come when the church will be clothed in righteousness, breathtaking in beauty--dressed as Christ’s bride. How blessed and how fortunate we are to have a role to play in the most important royal wedding of all. We will rule and reign with our Lord throughout eternity.

The following prophetic lyric writing by Jill Burnett, creator of the website “atthewell” is a glorious revelation of the bride of Christ: