What Will It Be Like?

I am thinking today of that line from the song “Well Done” by The Afters. “What will it be like when You call my name, and that moment when I see You face to face?”

In just a matter of days, I will walk down the aisle dressed in white, to the man who asked me to marry him and I so joyfully said “yes” to. I will stand face to face with my beloved, this man who is to be my husband. He will take my hand and we will make a lifelong covenant together. 

It is a moment I have waited many years for. Dreams do come true. 

Tears come quick, just writing that. I have wondered for a long time what it would be like, to be the bride of a man who loves me. Soon I will know.

It is a flurry of preparation around here. Purchases and details and lists abound. A wedding is coming and it must be well coordinated. The present circumstances have thrown kinks into plans and yet God has still provided a way to celebrate with friends both near and far. I have a million and one things to do. I probably don’t have time to write this blog post.

And yet. What is marriage, but a picture of Christ and the church?

I am not preparing merely for a one day celebration. I am preparing to enter into covenant marriage and thus display with my beloved a glimpse of the covenant between Christ and the church. Our momentary marriage is meant to point forward to the eternal one. 

So I stop and reflect. I anticipate the coming day of being Erik Leask’s bride. And I remember that it is pointing forward to the coming day when, as part of the bride of Christ, I will stand before my ultimate Bridegroom, face to face.

“What will it be like when tears are washed away, and every broken thing will finally be made whole? What will it be like when I come into Your glory, standing in the presence of a love so beautiful? I’m waiting my whole life for that day. I will live my life to hear You say, ‘Well done, well done, my good and faithful one, welcome to the place where you belong’.”

That is a day beyond compare. And on Saturday, June 13, I get the joy of pointing to it.

Erik does not complete me fully and I do not complete him fully, and yet there is a wholeness we will find together, as two become one. A wholeness and oneness that points to the joy of being one with Christ. 

The way he loves me, I have never known before what it is to be loved like this and I am still amazed that Erik loves me as he does . . . yet it is but a beautiful picture of the perfect way Christ loves me with a love beyond compare. 

To stand in the presence of my beloved as our betrothal changes to covenant . . . oh, what will it be like to stand in the presence of my Beloved as He too makes good on His promise to covenantally take the church as His bride for eternity? 

I belong with my Erik, there is a sense of being home with him that I have found nowhere else . . . and yet what will it be like to be home with the Lord, belonging with Him there as I never will on earth?

Marriage is not a reward for “running the race of singleness well” and I don’t want to carry this allegory too far. Marriage is more about holiness than it is about happiness and I am so grateful for that.

But there is a sense in which entering marriage with Erik is a fulfillment of so many hopes and dreams, and the years of waiting and wondering and choosing to look forward with hope when all seemed hopeless . . . I do feel like I am finally where I belong, when I am with him. I have found the one whom my soul loves, the one whom I am so desirous of promising “till death do us part” to, the one whose helpmeet I get to be. 

And if earthly marriage is this beautiful? How much more marvelous will it be, to after all the years of waiting and wondering and choosing to look forward with hope when all seemed hopeless . . . to finally be where we belong, when we are with Him? For Christ is the ultimate One whom our soul was made to love, the One whom death will never part us from, the One we get to serve and worship for all of eternity.

Marriage is a glorious thing and I am overjoyed to get to enter it with Erik. Yet I never want to lose sight of what our marriage points to. How we enter this covenant matters. How we keep this covenant matters. Just as it matters how we enter the covenant with Christ, and how we keep the covenant with Christ. Even in these days of “betrothal”, it matters that we walk worthy of the calling He has called us to.

And so, it with great joy and great solemnity that I am looking forward to that day. Both to my earthly wedding day, and to my heavenly wedding day.

What will it be like? I can’t wait to find out.

~Andrea

 

P. S. Due to the circumstances, our wedding will be live streamed on Saturday, June 13, 6:30 pm PST. Live stream link and details will be available at https://withjoy.com/erik-leask-andrea-donaldson/welcome.  We joyfully invite you to join in and celebrate with us from afar!