This week I celebrated ten years with my amazing husband. My best friend. My confidant in Christ. I made this video for him for a wedding surprise. We played it before I walked down the aisle. Since you all missed it, I am inviting you all into our big day.
Wiebel Wedding Movie from Jaime Wiebel on Vimeo.
This is us. Ten years ago. I look at those two kids and wonder who those people are. We have not only gotten older, our lives are very different. We now have three kids that keep us very busy. Our greatest conversations revolve around God and what He wants us to do with our lives.
In these pictures, I loved him but now I love him. He has my heart and is truly the other half of myself. Before we got married, I never understood the verses used in marriage ceremonies.
The verses come from Genesis when God made Eve from the flesh of Adam and then Jesus teaches them again in Mark 10. I thought they were just part of ceremony and tradition. Now they are real to me.
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." Mark 10:7-9
Now that I am married, I understand my husband and I are one, united by Christ. I am living this out in my life. I could write all day about this topic but I am not going to, not today.
Today, I want to tell you a story about when my husband and I first started dating. We would stay up at night and have long talks sharing our lives with each other.
It was that time in a new relationship when the past or exes may come up. I really do not like those moments and think they can be completely unhealthy for a relationship. Once something is said, and this goes for many things, it cannot be unsaid or unheard.
Even though I believe in honesty and transparency, some things just do not need said. It was not that I was trying to hide things from him. I just could not see how it would help us move forward.
So one night as we are in a conversation, he said to me, “I don’t need to hear about your past, about your exes and such stuff. All of that has made you who you are and I like that person.” Awwwww!
No, this is beyond sweet. This is a gift. He was going to like me regardless of any history. He was mature enough to handle my past and I was of his. We just did not need to discuss it. It had no benefit. We would continue this path no matter our past.
Who was this man?
The gift that he gave me that day was, come as you are.
What did this mean for me? What did this mean for our relationship?
What would that mean to you?
There is some exciting news for all of us. God is an amazing Father that gives us that same exact gift. He says to us come as you are and let me love the person that you have become.
For a long time I was afraid to face God. Even though I was a Christian, I was on the run. I was afraid to face the person that I had become. If I had only realized then His pursuit of me was with those exact words, come back to me as you are.
In Revelation, there are several beautiful pictures of Christ and the new heaven and the new earth being revealed like a bride to her bridegroom.
Maybe it's just me, but when I attend a wedding, I always look at the groom as the bride is entering the room. The first moment when the groom sees his soon to be bride with fresh eyes is such a precious sight.
No matter how many times he has laid his gaze upon her, there is something about that moment. The moment his eyes connect with the beautiful bride that is about to become the other half of his one flesh.
This is a picture of Christ. We are His bride. He looks at us with the greatest of love. He desires our oneness and our devotion to His heart.
Here is a beautiful gift He offers to all of us from Revelation 22:17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.
Do not let your situations from the past, from the present, or what you foresee yourself facing in the future keep you from coming to the Lord. He knows who you are and He loves you anyway. Hear His voice. See His Word. He says to all who all willing, “Come.”
Thank you Lord Jesus for loving us in spite of who we are. Thank you for not turning from us in time of our greatest need. Thank for simply telling us to come as we are.
You may also enjoy these previous posts:
Labels: Bride and Bridegroom, Come as You Are, Life With Christ, Mark 10:7-9, Revelation 22:17
