The Bride

There once was a young maiden who dreamed of marrying in a beautiful white dress. Her ideas about the groom were not very specific. He could be tall, dark and handsome or sturdy with smiling eyes or something else entirely. His physical characteristics were not as important as his motives and character. Anyway, she studied and worked while she dreamed of meeting him.

During a whirlwind summer, she decided to marry an old friend and now her dream of the white dress became real. The reality of the wedding was flawed and full of conflict as with many things in life. The dress was purchased on a clearance rack and had to be altered. It was beautiful. The flowers were cheap and colorful. The candles were purchased but no one remembered to put them out on the day of the wedding. Someone played piano music for the guests but the bride stood and greeted all the guests and didn’t hear any of it. In fact, everything was a blur on that day for the bride.

Yet, that very morning, in a magnificent white building that looks much like a castle, the wedding took place. The ceremony was simple and profound. It began with a smiling old gentleman who took a moment to offer counsel to the bride and groom. He used his authority as a sealer to solemnize the marriage for eternity. He said that those promises would be realized only if each individual stayed true to the promises they had made earlier with God. After the ceremony, the bride looked into the mirrors on opposite sides of the walls and saw an image of endless repetition. For a moment, the ideal seemed possible. Outside that temple, the heat was intense and glaring. The people who came to greet the bride and groom chattered endlessly. The children climbed on the planters and their parents tried to encourage them to look at the camera. The bride and groom posed for posterity’s sake.

After the party and presents, the bride and groom settled into a little green cottage behind a busy supermarket. They decorated the house with photos of their recent celebration. And after a few days of housekeeping, the university term began and the couple focused on getting good grades. No one had time to cook. The house was cleaned occasionally and the dishes piled up. Funny, how a real cottage with real dishes can seem so unappealing when compared with dreams.

After a few weeks, the bride began to think that she had been transported to a distant land like Daniel of old. In her heart she proposed to live the traditional way, like Daniel, who wouldn’t eat the king’s meat or stop praying to Israel’s God. And even though no one checked her countenance after ten day, she maintained a sense of identity. But in her heart she felt to question God as to how this situation was part of the whole picture of mortal progression resulting in a fulness of joy. Somehow the reality compared with the ideal was just too big of a juxtaposition to be understandable.

If the bride watched movies or listed to popular music she might have easily come to the conclusion that romantic love was the pinnacle experience of mortal life. With the climax lasting not more than a few seconds, romantic love became little insignificant things like a pan of brownies, an ironed shirt and a Sunday walk. Gone were the grand ideas of a maiden and in their place, a fetus grew.

The challenge for the couple was to find a fulness of joy amid baby diapers, casseroles and regular lawn maintenance. It seemed like it would be possible when the baby finally slept through the night. But then the baby began teething. It could have happened when the baby finally walked if the baby had stayed in one place. Every time the joy was within grasp, it moved off into the distance like an Arabian mirage.

The bride began to walk the path to a fulness of joy long before she learned of white dresses and temples. She entered the path through a symbolic death and reentry into life. This ordinance, called baptism, occurred when she was eight years old and included a white dress with a blue sash suitable for a small girl. The baptism was the crossing of a threshold into the life of a saint. It included a promise that the girl made to take the name of Christ and stand as a witness of Him at all times. Over time that promise began to influence the young girl’s character and she began to press forward with a perfect brightness of hope.

When the groom was eight years old, he also passed through the gate of baptism. And as young boys often climb gates instead of walking primly through them, he was invited to make another covenant with God when he came to the cusp of manhood. He was ordained by his father to an office in the priesthood by which the power of godliness is made manifest unto men in the flesh. He was given the privilege of receiving the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to the degree that he was receptive and worthy of them. Indeed, it was many years before the true value of this privilege became apparent to the boy who grew into a man. And the understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom was added to little by little and line upon line.

Just a little while before marriage, the man and woman separately accepted the opportunity to make another covenant with God in a temple. This covenant, called a spiritual endowment, included a bestowal of heavenly power and knowledge for each of them individually. Heavenly power, like light, is illusive to the senses and can both increase and diminish. So in conjunction with hope, it foreshadowed something indefinably mysterious.

After marriage, the heavenly gift remained while the realities of life barraged the happy couple with impossible scenarios. And through it all, the new couple tried to maintain the traditional way of living in piety, standing as a witness of God at all times. And the shaking continued. Those aspects of the character of the bride that were impure were refined like gold and the dross was destroyed. The groom also changed. The reality of change is both amazing and fearfully bewildering.

The Lord, God, sees from the beginning to the end with an eternal perspective. What we now see in mortality will end because most of it was not made by him. “And everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after men are dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God. For whatsoever things remain are by me; and whatsoever things are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed.” (D&C 132:13-14)

So did the couple live happily ever after and receive a fullness of joy? Well, not exactly, but as they saw their joy increase, they began to hope that it would continue to grow. And as the power of godliness was made manifest, they began to see how the covenants were changing them from inside. The mysteries of heaven were deposited in their hearts in layers of understanding. If you had come to check their countenances as King Nebuchadnezzar checked Daniel, you might have failed to see a change because clearly a step on the covenant path is not momentous from one day to the next. It is only momentous to see a family (husband, wife and children) reach the joyful destination after a long journey.