My Wedding Gown

On 28th February of this year, the invited guests witnessed as my brother, James, exchanged wedding vows with his bride, Shiku, in holy matrimony in Meru, Kenya. In the wedding the bride matters most and she’s the centre of attraction. People mostly look forward to seeing her gown and the colour of it, for it tells them a lot about the bride’s status.

In James’ wedding Shiku looked beautiful in a white gown. This signifies that the parents are presenting a pure bride to the groom. A different colour of the gown, usually beige, suggests it’s not the bride’s first marriage, because she’s consummated the relationship before the wedding, or, as we say, they’ve been living together. We refer to this as living in sin. Or we say that in this wedding they’re just renewing a marriage relationship which already exists. When I saw the picture of Shiku in a beautiful white gown it got me thinking of the wedding of the Lamb, and my wedding gown.

We are the Church. We are the Bride of Christ. We should make sure that our robes are washed in the blood of the Lamb. ‘Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life’ (Revelation 22:14).

Jesus wants to present to Himself a Bride without a spot or wrinkle, or any other blemish (Ephesians 5:26). So, for us to walk down the aisle for the wedding of the Lamb, our gowns need to be white. That means being holy, and living a righteous, pure and honourable life. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2 ‘I promised you as a pure bride to one husband - Christ’.

The bride is always in custody of the gown before the wedding, and it’s highly guarded so it won’t be spoilt. In the same way there are things we need to guard in our daily life, our thoughts, our conversation, our interaction with people, the places we visit, the things we hear or see, the things we indulge ourselves in. Let’s always remember we are to wear a white gown, which is our salvation. We don’t want it to be contaminated.

So we must avoid anything that can mess up our gowns, anything that would corrupt our pure and undivided devotion to Christ, as Paul was afraid of in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4.
So the choice is ours. What colour are we going to make our wedding gown? Actually the white one, which is our righteous deeds, is the only one permissible for the Bride of Christ. So let’s live a holy life, for the One who called us is holy. Jesus is coming soon for His bride. Are you ready?

Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, that You loved and chose me even before the formation of the world. And thank You that through Your blood, I have become Your bride. Help me, through Your holy Spirit, to be a living and a holy sacrifice, acceptable before You, that when You come for Your bride I am ready. Amen.