first things first

Well i gotta say, what I am most excited about right now is finding a wedding dress!!!! :)

Kinda funny then that I ran across this verse in my daily devotional this morning: 

Revelation 19:7 and 8- "Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints."

So basically in that verse, the bride represents the believers, and the garment represents the righteousness of the believers (in the bible, garments are used to signify righteousness- cf Job 29:14, Romans 3:21-23, Revelation 19:13).

Wow! So how do we as believers prepare ourselves (ie. get our wedding dress)? Well, as Christians our only hope is in the redemption of Christ. I love that hymn that says "God's Christ who is my righteousness, my beauty is, my glorious dress." He is our righteousness! So awesome. And there are two aspects to our salvation accomplished by Christ. One side of it is that as the eternal sacrifice slain for us, He has paid the debt for all of our sins. The other side is that as we partake of His holy nature (2 Peter 1:4), we become righteous because He is righteous. That is amazing. All we have to do is live a life in the Spirit, and stitch by stitch we are preparing ourselves for that day. Love it!

Changes

I had an extra-pensive day today so here's about what was happening...

     As I heard my sister's car pull away downstairs, I asked myself what it meant to me that she is actually moving out. Susie and I have been womb-mates, room-mates, class-mates, and everything in between. I'm a twin and for some reason she and I have shared every major transition in our lives. From transferring to public school in second grade, to moving to Austin to start college, to our most recent adventure, a two year bible school in California, we have inadvertently been in-step at every juncture. 

     So as I contemplate the fact that she beat me to the punch and moved out before I did! Ha! I realize that for the first time in my life, I am about to embark on a journey on which she will no longer be my partner in crime, because...

I just got engaged!!!! exciting. I'll tell that story in a bit.

     So stay tuned y’all. It’s gonna be an interesting, and most likely very, very fun ride. I’m looking forward to many awesome and cherished memories, and most of all many conversations with the Lord as I navigate the wonderful and probably quite bewildering, but never dull world of wedding planning :).