137 My Jesus I Love Thee

Jesus speaks of the Galilean wedding customs, easily understood by the disciples, foreign to today’s Bride of Christ. A wedding consisted of three phases: 1) When a young boy, the groom’s father would arrange an engagement, often using a matchmaker; 2) As adolescents, the couple would exchange vows at the betrothal ceremony and another waiting period followed; 3) Finally, the marriage ceremony, consummation, and the marriage supper commenced. At the betrothal, or engagement, the groom tells the bride, “I go to prepare a place for you; if I go, I will return again unto you.” The couple are now legally married and a waiting period begins, the bride preparing for reunion with her husband, the husband preparing a place for his bride. She returns to her father’s home and takes a cleansing bath to symbolize a separation from her former single life to married life. She then begins preparing herself for the wedding ceremony—selecting fabric for her wedding dress, keeping her lamp filled with oil because her groom will likely return to her at  night. Meanwhile, the groom goes back to his father’s house to add on a new room for himself and his bride. At times, he sends gifts to her, reminding her of his love. When his work is finished, his father tells him it is time to return to his bride, to blow the shofar, to consummate the marriage, and begin the marriage supper celebration.

We are the Bride of Christ. While we wait for His return, we prepare ourselves. Our Bridegroom tells us how to prepare: Upon acceptance of Jesus’ invitation to salvation, we immerse ourselves in a cleansing bath through baptism (I Pet. 3:21). We please our Bridegroom when we conduct our lives according to His instructions in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). We are faithful to Him when we direct our love to Him and to others (Matt. 22:37-39). He showed us how to live and how to love. He showed us that love costs and that we are of great value to Him. He showed us that, like Him, we will carry our cross until He returns to take us home with Him.

Are you keeping your lamp filled with oil while you wait for His return? Your Bridegroom is preparing a place for you. Will you be faithful to Him as you wait for Him? He is faithful to you. Are you preparing for the day when “In mansions of glory and endless delight, I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright.”

The Bride and Her Lamp

Not too long ago I was teaching a class, “God’s Fingerprint Detectives”. We made Bible-inspired clay lamps and filled them with olive oil, the same oil a bride would use when Jesus told this parable. I enjoyed contemplating the tearing, pounding, shaping, and finally engraving of the clay needed for it to become a lamp. We filled our lamps with olive oil so they could produce light in the night. Olives are ground and squeezed to produce oil. The leftovers are used for animal feed and fertilizer. The lamp and the oil are a picture of what I must endure while I await His return. The leftovers represent my past failures and testimony, useful for sharing with others whose lives mine intersects.

Your turn: Are you ready to make a clay lamp? If so, terracotta clay would be the most authentic; it is readily available at many stores. Alternatively, you could make salt and flour clay. While making a lamp, think about what you are doing to the clay and how it is a picture of your life as God prepares you for Himself, His Bride.