I’m reading G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man where he describes the church as “a thing … still as new as it is old.”
Can you imagine something just as new now as it was when first established 2000 years ago? But I think Chesterton’s right. That’s the way of the church. This is the Bride of Christ we are talking about, a bride he has prepared yet is still preparing for the wedding to come.
I’ve been to weddings. I’ve been to weddings where both the bride and groom are in their teens, and I’ve conducted weddings where both are well into middle age. Never have I seen a bride who didn’t look new, though. Every single one – new, new, new.
The church may be 2000 years old but this bride is just as new now as when first-born.
The church is a thing still as new as it is old.
(Sheepish.) I’ve never read it. I’ve read Orthodoxy and some fiction, but that’s it for Chesterton. So far. But you make me want to change that…. 🙂
Sheepish? You’re one of the great readers, Anne, from what I’ve seen. I loved Orthodoxy, how about you? Chesterton’s not always an easy read, but he’s always a rich one.
My father, widower for 6 years, got remarried this past April. My dad is 70, his bride is 65… and BOTH of them looked new, despite the grey hair…
May the church be just such a bride…
That must have been a happy wedding, Robert, congratulations to them both! And I think the church truly is just such a bride, new and being made ready.
Dude, it was a party beyond parties… and a day of redemption for my family as a lot of things that meant grief due to my mother’s passing were made newly joyful in my father’s wedding. Isn’t that what the Kingdom is about after all?
A hint of the Wedding Feast to come!
BTW… Here’s the article I wrote back in April on that wedding… I hope I’m not too presumptive in posting it here…
http://abnormalanabaptist.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/redemption/
I’m glad you linked that, Robert. It is truly beautiful.
How absolutely lovely!
Maybe this is the answer to the world’s obsession with anti-aging! No more creams or surgeries~living perpetually as the Bride of Christ!
And it’s totally free!
And to think the church will never grow old after the wedding, praise God!
So true, Aimee!