How many banquets have you attended in your lifetime? I’ve been to a few. As an athlete, we would have banquets at the end of each sport season. As a student at a Christian school, we had Junior/Senior banquet in place of prom. I’m sure there are many other examples of banquets.
At these banquets, we put on our best sometimes most formal dresses. We ate really good food (most of the time). And we generally had a great time talking and being with one another maybe reminiscing about times past.
But have you ever thought of the marriage banquet we’ll have with Jesus? Revelation 19 (NES) says:
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
We as Jesus’ church are His Bride. After He comes back to get us, we’ll join Him in a marriage and banquet. I’m not sure what this will look like, but I know it will be better than we as humans can even imagine in our most imaginative thoughts! We’ll be dressed in our new and changed bodies, and I think the food we eat will be the best we’ve ever tasted.
But best of all, we’ll be with Jesus! And we’ll get to see all those who’ve died before us. I’ll get to see my daddy! My friend, Heather, will get to see her mom and dad who she misses so much! What a great day!