Her heart quickened to a maddening pace when the music touched her eardrum. Its lively tone and sweet melody nearly brought tears to her eyes. She breathed heavily, afraid to believe what she beheld but longing with all of her soul to do the very thing she feared. Her Bridegroom had promised that she would hear this song on His return, and at the time, she believed Him. But through the years of pain, sorrow, fear, and regret, she had nearly forgotten the rhythm. Everything else within her begged to ease the pain and forget the man she had so loved as a young girl and had trusted without doubt. But one Voice thundered in her mind with enough power to drown out any other, yet with the sweetness of a gentle, calming breeze in the midst of a scorching day: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. I desire that you, whom I have been given, will be with Me where I am. I have left you here for a little while so that I can do the work My Father commissioned Me to do: to bring justice; to strengthen; to guide; to open blind eyes; to bring out prisoners from the dungeon; and to radiate light for people who cannot escape from where they are because the darkness surrounding them is a darkness that can be felt. But I promise with My whole heart: I will return.”
She could not deny the love she could still feel from her Husband. And she wanted to please Him and make Him joyful when He came back for her, for she could not bear any trace of disappointment on His face as He first caught a glimpse of her, and she of Him. So, despite opposition, temptation, attack, and unbelief, she placed His words under her feet and stood on them, and she was never shaken from where she stood. Her eyes remained fixed on the foggy horizon, vigilant for the face of her Groom. She had refused to please her soul with other music, for she feared that other melodies may overtake her hearing and cause her to miss the song of her Beloved’s coming. So she stood in the quiet. And waited. And watched.
Suddenly, her heart quickened to a maddening pace when the music touched her eardrum. Its lively tone and sweet melody nearly brought tears to her eyes. She breathed heavily, afraid to believe in what she beheld, but longing with all her soul to do the very thing she feared. It was her Bridegroom’s face.
His beautiful, majestic, love-overflowing face.
She no longer stood on His words but ran with a joyous laugh to the One Who spoke them. As she ran, she gazed at His face, and she saw what she had longed to see since He had departed: a countenance of pleasure, joy, and pride. His smile broke, and it seemed to beam with the light He told her about in His last words to her. The space between them vanished, and she collided with her Love’s chest as they wrapped their arms around each other with the force of a love grown stronger by time. He grasped the back of her head and pulled her as close as she could come, and her body shook as an aspen quakes with her sobs of pure rapture. They had been reunited, the righteous Bridegroom with His pure Bride. They pulled apart, and suddenly He swept her off her feet and carried her home, the air filled with laughter the whole way.