Unveiled Faces

I’m not sure of the origin of the wedding veil.  I don’t know who used it first, in what culture, for what purpose. It seems to have been there always, as long as weddings themselves, but I honestly couldn’t tell you why. 

In just a few short weeks, I’ll be wearing a home-made floor-length veil as I walk the isle of a church. I’ll have a blusher over my face that Jake will lift to kiss me, softly, for the first time as his wife. Though I don’t know what the original significance of this ritual was, I’ve begun to meditate on what it will mean for me.

In scripture, the metaphor of a veil is used to describe a barrier in intimacy or understanding between us and God. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul says that when people are trying to understand the law of the old covenant without Christ, a veil “lies over their hearts.” They’re incapable of understanding what they’re reading or truly communing with God, because Jesus is the way to God: he is the lifter of the veil.

^{2Corinthians 3: 16  “}But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Marriage, according to scripture, is a living picture of the love, commitment, and unity of Christ and his Church. Husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. (Eph 5:25: the ultimate sacrificial love.) The parallel is drawn in Ephesians 5: 31, when Paul is talking about a man and wife becoming one flesh, and says “This mystery is profound, I am talking about Christ and the church.” It is meant to act as a metaphor for the unbreakable, unconditional vow Christ has made to us: I will never leave you or forsake you. 

How beautiful it is to me, that once I did not know God, but that he came to me and lifted my veil. Because of Christ, our bridegroom, who lifted the veil that separated us from God, we can see his glory and live in intimacy with him. In the same way, all the things which once separated Jake and me--all the things that were secret or unknown-- will be removed when we’re married. God will make us one.