The Birthday of a Bride
A woman, when she enters into labor on the day
She brings at last into the world the object of her love—
A long awaited, precious baby, sent from God above—
Knows well that, to receive this gift, she has a price to pay,
A price to pay in groans of pain and cries of sore affliction,
In blood and water flowing from within her very being,
For without such self-sacrifice, she has no hope of seeing
New life spring from her womb, made fertile by God’s benediction.
Young Adam, too, upon the day God blessed him with a wife,
To take her in his arms, first had to lie disarmed and still,
Held fast beneath a pall of darkness, pinned there by God’s will,
And bear the semblance of one dead, to give another life.
To give His son a partner, then, God opened Adam’s side
And drew from deep within him, from a region near his heart,
A rib from which to form with surgeon’s skill a work of art,
To make from Adam’s substance and self-sacrifice a bride.
So too, when Jesus came at last to save our dying race,
He came disposed to pay the price required to win His prize,
A bride made of His very substance, precious in His eyes,
Drawn from the womb of His afflictions, born of sovereign grace.
Like Adam, Christ descended first into a pit of gloom,
Held fast by sovereign justice there, a rough cross for His bed,
God opened then His holy side to show that he was dead,
As blood and water flowed from Him as from a mother’s womb.
And from that blood of sacrifice and water shed for cleansing,
God drew forth for His Son a bride, the church for which He came,
Formed of His flesh and bones once offered on a cross of shame,
Raised up to dwell with Christ as one, in love’s embrace unending.
Martin Rizley grew up in Oklahoma and in Texas, and has served in pastoral ministry both in the United States and in Europe. He is currently serving as the pastor of a small evangelical church in the city of Málaga on the southern coast of Spain, where he lives with his wife and daughter.
Thanks, Martin, for the outline of pattern and purpose in a comparison drawn by Jesus Christ Himself. Happy Easter to you and yours!
Thank you, Margaret, for your feedback! Many blessings to you and yours, as well, at this special time of commemorating the most important event in all of history.
A strange analogy I’ve not heard of before, but it makes uncommon sense. Blood, wine and water intermixed make a powerful brew.