A sweet friend of mine is getting married and asked me stand with her at her wedding. What an honor it is to stand beside this amazing woman as she commits herself to a man who loves and treasures her.

My thoughts then turned to how the church is called the bride of Christ. With a bride you think of a beautiful white dress, perfect hair and makeup, joy spread across her face as she enters a room filled with family and friends and journeys down the aisle to her true love, her partner, the man who will provide for her and protect her and stand beside her throughout life.

But what about the time leading up to the wedding day? For the church, for us, there is little beauty without Christ. It is in Him and because we are His bride that we are even beautiful. Without Him we are ensnared by sin, little more than a harlot of this world seeking after our own will and pleasures. We are dressed in filthy rags, skin marked by blemishes and sores. There is no beauty in us, in our sin.

And yet, God in his amazing grace, changes us. We become a bride. Beautiful, dressed in white, pure and holy. We enter the ceremony and we are changed. We become the bride of our dreams, even better. As we walk down the aisle focused solely on Him, we transform.  We haven’t become better on our own, but because He is our groom. We are changed because it is He who waits for us at the end of the aisle. We are beautiful because it is He is gives us this beauty by his sacrifice and love.

What a picture of love. What a God we have. He takes the filthy harlot and transforms her into the blushing bride.

We are who we are because He chooses us to be His.