DRESSING ROOM“As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.” –Isaiah 62:5b
Some call it “the most important room in the house,” referring to one with a tub or shower, sink and toilet. But will there be bathrooms in Heaven? In our new bodies, will we need a place to wash and take care of body functions? Will God allow nice, long soaks in a tub? We don’t know. But if we expand the idea of “bathroom” to the greater role of a “room of preparation,” we may come closer to a Heavenly equivalent. Think of the room that many larger churches set apart for a bride and her attendants to dress for the wedding ceremony. Many are tastefully decorated with couches and mirrors to honor this very special occasion.
Some people may insist her dressing room is a boudoir, meaning “private dressing room or sitting room.” However, this French word, loaned to our English language, literally means “a place to sulk.” Perhaps in earlier times it described young ladies who were less than thrilled with the men seeking their affections. But when it’s a private dressing room for a wedding, the bride can hardly wait to exchange vows and rings with her beloved. You can be sure that the bride will spend extra time dressing and preparing her hair and makeup. This is her day! She is getting married to a wonderful man who has captured her heart. The clock ticks down, and soon she’s at the doors entering the church. She wears the most beautiful dress she has ever owned of glistening white satin and lace. Her veil is like a halo around her face. Her eyes gleam in anticipation. The soft prelude music crescendos to a royal processional, and she enters, her focus on her waiting bridegroom.
Heaven’s dressing room won’t be a “place to sulk” either. Who would pout and complain when you will be joined to the perfect Bridegroom, the One who laid down His life for you! No matter our gender, male or female, as believers we are the bride. That is why, though it may seem an odd connection, but when a person dies, a wedding’s ahead.
At age 78, Louise was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Told she had just a few months to live, she wrote “final letters” to her children and grandchildren. She also got busy planning her own funeral. After her death, she wanted to be cremated in a dress she wore to a recent family wedding. She wanted two memorial services, one at her home church and another at the church where she was married. She listed what she wanted said and sung. She also planned a “reception” (not a “funeral dinner”) after her memorial and told what she wanted served there. Her family had to have this feast catered! “She wasn’t planning a funeral,” her son John said. “She was having a wedding celebration.” Her last words included “Jay,” the name of her late husband. We can only guess her first words in Heaven. Could they have been “Jesus”? Her eternal Bridegroom had called her.
The apostle John captured that in this vision of Heaven: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev. 21:2). The “new Jerusalem” is God’s chosen--believers. We are the bride! Let that sink in, and then put it in the context of a story told in a famous old devotional book, Streams in the Desert. An accident blinded a ten-year-old boy from a well-to-do family. Despite his handicap, he graduated with university honors. He also won the love of a young woman, even though he had never seen her, only felt her face. Shortly before their marriage, he underwent treatments that doctors said might restore his vision. He came to the church on his wedding day with his eyes swathed in bandages. Distinguished guests packed the church as he, his father, and a doctor moved to the front for the bride’s procession. As the bride came near, a doctor cut away the last bandage on his eyes. The bridegroom blinked in astonishment over seeing his bride, then walked toward her with extraordinary joy over her beauty. (1)
In Heaven’s wedding, the Groom, Jesus Christ, sees just fine. The bride (the church, including us) comes blinded by earth’s troubles and trials. When death removes the bandages, we will see our Groom face to face. Oh, the joy of that day! Start the wedding march!
Prayer: “The Bride of Christ”—I can hardly wrap my mind around that symbol, but it’s so wonderful. Thank you for loving me so completely, Jesus. Amen.
(1) Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, compiler, Streams in the Desert, entry for March 27 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1925, 1953, 1965).
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