A Bride for Christ

Jesus' fingerprints are all over this culture. I see Jesus every day in the faces of the smiling children who come up to me, in the tiny plants in our garden that are barely peeking up from the ground, in the excitement of adults when they ask if they can come to church and in the villages where they offer us refreshments of python and yams "to give us energy" for helping them with their garden. I feel excited when I pray for Ghana because I know that she is a Bride long awaited by the King of Kings. The weekend before I left for Africa I was a bridesmaid in my best friend's wedding. Before the ceremony all the bridesmaids thanked God for our friendship with her and for bringing her and her husband to this beautiful moment where they would enter into a covenant with each other. This was the most important part of "getting ready" that day that we could have possibly helped with. A missionary's job is this same kind of preparation; spiritually helping the Bride prepare for the moment when she walks down the aisle. I have heard countless times how everyone's favorite part of a wedding is seeing the groom's face when his bride walking toward Him. I cannot imagine Jesus' face and the joy in His smile when the Gonja people are presented to Him. I have seen many beautiful things in Africa from the gorgeous sunsets every evening to the faces of children every morning. But there are a few moments that stick out to me more than others. One of them was last Saturday when four people came over to be baptized. One of them had been undergoing a discipleship program with the missionaries we are staying with.  He left all indications of his old life behind (he was a witch doctor) and I know that all of heaven applauded as he was baptized in the pond behind our house. There is so much of God's work going on here and I feel so humbled  watching all that God is doing. I know I am not doing anything beyond what God has called every person to do; I am not doing something in Ghana that could only be done by me. I do not have a special revelation that God has not given others; I am completely replaceable in every way. But it is this understanding that makes me so grateful that despite these facts, I am able to have the privilege of joining in this preparation for the Bridegroom's return.