As the Bridegroom Rejoices

As I headed for my Volkswagen which was parked, due to the lack of a parking lot, on a distant street, I began to look forward to the weekend.  Another week of teacher’s college was over.  The 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. hours were a shock to the system after attending university for a year.  I longed for the fifteen hour lecture week, especially since class cancellations and skipping early or inconvenient classes reduced the university workload down to a more manageable grind.  Missing class at North Bay Teacher’s College was, we imagined, punishable by immediate expulsion.  I was eagerly driving to pick up my bride of three months.

Our Friday evening routine was very quickly established during that year at normal school, so named because the teaching masters were supposed to inculcate the norms of standard teaching practices.  I picked up Lozanne at our modest (I am looking back with rose colored glasses) one bedroom apartment in the heart of the industrial section of town.  Our first stop was the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce which was in the downtown core.  There was but one method to get money to spend in 1968.  After parking and putting a nickel in the parking meter, you stood in a long line in a large high ceilinged and echo filled bank and withdrew the money from your account with a written withdrawal slip.  Our usual weekly withdrawal was $25.00.  We would then buy gasoline as required at thirty-four cents per gallon.  The empty eight gallon tank would cost us $2.72.  We then headed for the A and P grocery store to buy our weekly groceries for around $17.00.  The money left over was our spending money for the week.  We would then head home for a special Friday night meal like frozen chicken pot pie.

I have very fond memories of the early months of our marriage.  For a brief period in our nearly 44 years, there was only the two of us.  There were definitely times of tension as we adjusted to the complexity of married life.  There were also times of joy and growing together as a couple.  It is the times of joy that I best  remember these days.

The Friday evenings stand out, as do the number of times I was late for class in the morning, which oddly seemed to be a very forgivable misstep  at North Bay Teacher’s College.  My uncharacteristic lateness on a regular basis became somewhat of a class joke for both students and teaching master alike.  These memories have lately given me an enhanced understanding of Isaiah 62:5

 5 ... And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.

Throughout the Bible the concept of the church becoming the bride of Jesus  is constantly developed.  The prophet Isaiah, who wrote the above words about seven centuries before the birth of Christ, is forecasting a later day when God (Jesus) will rejoice and delight in His church given to Him as a bride.  Who makes up the church?  Simply stated, the church is made up of faithful believers.  It does not consist of any one denomination or religion.  It is made up of those who have professed their belief in the saving work of Jesus dying on the Roman cross in order to pay dearly for our sins.  As I rejoiced over the bride of my youth, as I continue to do so to this day, so God rejoices over those who are true believers in his church.  He sees every one of them as desirable and beautiful just as a bridegroom is expected to see his bride.  I am thankful that I can count myself amongst those men who can truly understand the second half of verse 5 in Isaiah 62.

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