Have you met my bride?

My failures as a husband are many and varied. As Stan Lee would add, 'NUFF SAID. But I do have one total success as a husband. That is the fact that after 20 years of marriage, I refer to the mother of my children as "my bride" instead of "my wife".

It may seem trivial, and it is sometimes just thought of as me trying to score points with her. But it isn't. It demonstrates a fundamental view of the relationship between Jesus Christ and the Church, that is the entirety of believers in Him throughout human history. Jesus Himself referred to His followers as His bride. In the Old Testament, Israel was rightly called an unfaithful bride by God. The way God loves me is is the way that I should love my bride.

I'm writing this on Good Friday, thinking of how Jesus was falsely accused, illegally tried, wrongly convicted, in-humanely beaten and cruelly crucified for ME. And for YOU. That He spent SIX HOURS on the cross in agony because He loved me that much.

He didn't have to go to the cross.

He didn't want to go to the cross.

He didn't deserve to go to the cross.

He didn't need to go to the cross, personally.

But He CHOSE to go. Because of love. Agape love. Selfless, sacrificial love. Love that is defined as "the deliberate, conscious choice to put the needs, wants and desires of another over your own, without counting the cost or remembering that you made the payment." Expensive love.

I should always love her more than I love me. I don't, but I should, and desire and intend to. My bride. Not my wife or the old ball and chain. My bride.

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