What’s keeping you?

My Wedding, July 13, 1991

Do you have any old VHS movies? We got rid of most of ours when we got rid of our VCR; however, we have a few we just couldn’t part with, one of which is our wedding video.  My copy got messed up somehow and has no sound, so my mother mailed her copy to me and it arrived yesterday. We popped it into the small TV/VCR combo we still have to make sure the sound worked and found ourselves watching it.

It’s been over twenty-two years since that I walked down the aisle in West Market United Methodist Church, and several family members and friends in the video have gone to be with the Lord.  It was such a treat to see their faces and hear their voices again. However, my favorite part of the whole video is just before I come down the aisle.  My sweet husband-to-be forgot the videographer put a mic on him to ensure they’d pick up the vows.  As the trumpet sounds at the beginning of Trumpet Voluntary, you hear Mark saying, 

Come on, come on. Come on, come on.”

Even though you cannot see me on the video when I round the corner and start down the aisle, you know the exact moment it happens, because he gets this huge smile on his face and starts saying,

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!”

This groom is captivated by his bride, totally enthralled with her, just like another bridegroom we can read about in the Word.  Psalm 45:11 says,

The King is enthralled by your beauty; honor Him, for He is your Lord.”

Isaiah 61:10 reminds us Christ is the Bridegroom and we, the church, are His bride. There will be a day when we are joined with Him for all eternity, never to be separated again. We don’t have to wait for that day to have an intimate relationship with Him. Even today, He stands, just as Mark did on our wedding day, and bids us to come to Him.  He eagerly anticipates spending time with us.

Just before I walked down the aisle with my Daddy, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said,

Are you sure you want to do this? Because we could just go to Yum Yums and get a hotdog and some ice cream.”

Yum Yums is our favorite hotdog joint in Greensboro and we would always jump at the chance to go there, but not that day.  I told him,

Nope. I’ve got plans. I’m walking down this aisle and getting married.”

Nothing was stopping me from it. What’s standing in your way? What’s stopping you from walking down that aisle to your Bridegroom to spend time with Him? He’s there.  His gaze is fixed on you and He’s waiting? How will you respond?