Renewed Hope

I've never been that comfortable with the imagery of the church being the bride of Christ. I think part of it is actually because I am a guy, and therefore don't anticipate walking down the aisle in a beautiful white gown. Even the thought of marriage in general wasn't all too appealing to me until recently. Now, the changing of my feelings on this subject is not the purpose of this post. Don't get me wrong, I've always considered marriage a beautiful thing, a gift from God to be exact. However, in our society today one would think that it is in perilous jeopardy.

In the last year or two I've certainly had reasons to feel pessimistic about the state of marriage. Several of my friends have recently been closely touched by divorce. On top of that, it never really seemed like any of my friends, or me for that matter, would ever have any interest in it. However, last weekend my faith was renewed. It came from several different conversations with non-Christian friends and acquaintances. Here I was, with guys my age, who were all talking about getting married and having a family. Now, non of us are planning on giving the next girl we meet a ring, but the fact that that desire is still alive renewed my faith that the desire God gave each of us, and designed us to have, is still alive and well.

Now, just to work on accepting that imagery of the church. I'm sure God can help me with that.