Today would have been my 20th wedding anniversary. It’s wedding season so I’m continually seeing posts from smiling couples whose years continue to tick past. Sometimes I feel like marriage is this big relay race and my partner walked out of the stadium. Other couples continue running laps while I sit on the sidelines a bit bloodied and bruised.

These days always feel strange. June 28th used to mean so much and now it is a weirdly normal day. Days like today just kind of hang in the atmosphere- ghosts of what once was. And yet today stills holds echoes of sacredness because

I WAS A BRIDE.

I wore white. I entered into a sacred covenant. I became part of a new family. I feasted and celebrated a bright future.

I WAS A BRIDE.

I’m no longer her, but a Bride I still am.

Christ has clothed me with robes of righteousness. I have entered into an unbreakable covenant with Him. I am part of a new family. One day, I will feast at His table and my bright and glorious future will never fade, never end.

I AM A BRIDE.

“Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying,
Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty, reigns!
Let us be glad, rejoice, and give Him glory, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself.
She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure.
For the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.
Then he said to me, “Write: Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb!” He also said to me, “These words of God are true.”
REVELATION 19:6-9

Maybe you were a bride with a sacred, but now weirdly normal ghost day too. If so, remember, you still are and will be a Bride forevermore. Brighter days are ahead…