Would You Wear a Pre-owned Wedding Gown?
My original contribution to this debate was published on the Helium website, an online association of writers and though the debate was thrown to ladies but the opportunity to say something was just too tempting. Again, this subject came up during my own wedding and I helped my bride to make a decision. While making our budgets for the wedding, some friends and relations brought the idea of cutting cost by having Suzan wear the wedding gown used by her sister just a year past. Because of the economic crisis that we were in, it sounded, at first, like a good idea.
I was tying loose ends to our preparations one day, I read the passage where Paul described the church as the bride of Christ, with no blemish or spot and without wrinkles. I began to think of the church as a bride, so what would be the wedding gown the church wears on the wedding day? The righteousness of Jesus Christ is the answer. Christ washed the church with his blood, took upon himself the sins of the church and gave the church his righteous garment. There has been no garment like this in the whole world, for, all the world have sinned and gone short of the glory of God. So the garment the church is wearing is brand new, tailor-made by Jesus sufferings, pains and blood. It is not a pre-owned garment.
It suddenly dawned on me that the white of the wedding gown was supposed to symbolise this chastity, on the outside while inwardly, the couple themselves must be pure. The white color of the gown is a reflection of the purity and sanctity of the marriage relationship. My mind began to wander around. I began to imagine how my wife would appear on that day in her gown. How would she smell? How fitting would the gown be? What would she be feeling as she moves about? What would I be feeling as I look at her? I began feeling the softness of the imaginary gown in my hands. And suddenly like a flash, I knew I wouldn’t feel easy if I knew she was wearing a gown that some other man had felt in his hands like that before. That would defile the sanctity of that gown.
I knew from that time that everything must be personalized, tailor made for my bride just as Jesus made gave a tailor-made gown to the church. Every stitch of that wedding gown must be new and unexplored as Jesus wanted the bride to be. She had to be the first and only one to have used it on that day. It may not matter to some other people, but to me, it sure does. The gown must not have as much as a faint smell of another woman.
That settled it for me. I knelt down to pray for understanding and wisdom. Then I rushed to Suzan’s house and told her what has been going on in my mind. She accepted and from there we went to talk to her sewing mistress.
Read the original publication and other peoples views at http://www.helium.com/items/1509719-wedding-gowns
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