Summertime means wedding season is in full swing. I had the chance recently to help a friend with some decorations for her upcoming ceremony, and I began thinking about all of the preparations necessary for a modern wedding. She wanted to make rose pomanders (flower balls) to hang along the aisle of her church. We twisted and rolled yards of crepe paper into little roses and pinned them onto foam balls. They tuned out lovely, and the handmade decorations will add a nice touch to her very special day.

Besides decorations, of course, there are many details to tend to when planning a wedding. There’s the venue, the officiator and attendants, the dress, the vows, the reception, the honeymoon … so many things to remember. As I thought about weddings, one of my all-time favorite passages of Scripture came to mind, Revelation 21:1-4. In that last book of the Bible, John describes a vision that God gave him of Christ’s triumphant return and his followers being united with him. Those four verses, in particular, were so meaningful to me that I memorized them years ago, but as I reread the passage recently, I realized something new: God wrote his own wedding vows to us.

When a couple recites their vows, they are expressing a commitment to their new spouse. Similarly, God’s vows are to enter into a new level of relationship with his people. Picking up in v. 3 (NIV), we read: “They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” God promises not merely to love, honor and cherish us as his “bride,” in a symbolic sense, but he commits to completely doing away with every ounce of our pain, every teardrop, and replace it with newness.

Like a couple wraps up their wedding vows with the words, “I do,” God also says in v. 6, “It is done.” Seeing as his eternal existence is not bound by space or time, God’s promise is already assured, simply because he said it would be so. It should come as no surprise, but we humans make a mess of things quite often. We do not follow through on promises; we break our vows. But, God’s words “are trustworthy and true” (v. 5).

God is doing more than making crepe paper pomanders in preparation for the glorious day when we will be united with him. He is readying a place that needs no electricity because he gives it light; a place where even the infrastructure is more beautiful than our wildest imaginations; a place of unbridled glory (Rev. 21: 10-25). What are we doing to prepare to join him?