A pleasant memory came to mind last night as I contemplated today’s date 26 years ago, our wedding day. The first without Scott, there are so many things I miss, but in his last three years of orthopedic deterioration, I had missed without realizing that he always had such a bounce in his step. He walked with a quick pace that included an energetic bounce. These last three years, that bounce became a limp.

On our wedding day, it was the bounce to the nth degree. The wedding video shows him sort of bouncing in place before I walked down the aisle. Afterward and all through our marriage, he referred to that point in time, discussing his view as the bridegroom of the bride prepared for him – he held that moment as breathtaking, priceless, beyond words, a picture of what Jesus must see in His anticipation of receiving His bride, the body of Christ – believers.

My remembering turned to that imagery that Scott saw, which is painted in the Bible, namely that of Jesus as the bridegroom. The church is referenced as the bride of Christ – Revelation 22:17, “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ The bride is arrayed in fine linens for her groom, the Lamb, at the time of the marriage in Revelation 19:7. With an eternal perspective of Jesus as our bridegroom, the joining of the church with Him in Heaven, that day is one of excitement. I cannot truly imagine the emotion of our beloved bridegroom at receiving His beloved, but with my own wedding in sight, I have a glimpse of the excitement and joy that must inhabit that moment. With that in view, I can only imagine Scott’s entry into heaven, not a somber and tearful sendoff and homegoing as it may have felt from our view, but as a time of pure elation as the Lord received His beloved, a moment that was anticipated from eternity past and culminated in perfect time. I wonder if the Lord walks with a bounce in His step!