The Book Of Mysteries: 14-Day DevotionalSample

The Mystery of the Bride

On our journey to the city, we stopped on a nearby hill.
"Look," said the teacher, pointing to an event at the city's edge.
"It looks like a wedding," I replied, "or the preparation for a wedding." The bride, in a white gown, was standing in a garden with her bridesmaids.
"You're watching a cosmic mystery, the shadow of a mystery. Existence," he said, "is a love story ...or was meant to be a love story. The bride is a picture of what we each were created to be."
"I don't understand."
"We were each created to be the bride. That's why we can never be complete in ourselves. That's why, deep down, in the center of our being, in the deepest part of our heart, we seek to be filled. For the bride is made to be married. So we can never find our completion until we are joined to Him who is beyond us. And that is why we go through our lives trying to join ourselves..."
"Join ourselves to what?"
"To that which we think will fill the longing of our hearts-to people, success, possessions, achievements, money, comfort, acceptance, beauty, romance, family, power, a movement, a goal, and any multitude of things. For the bride was created to be married, and she can never rest until she is."
"So none of the other things can work?"
"No. None of the other things are the Bridegroom."
"And who is the Bridegroom?"
"The Bridegroom is God, the One for whom we were created."
"So we have to find Him."
"More than that," he said. "A bride doesn't just find the Bridegroom; she marries Him. So it's not enough to find God; you must marry Him."
"Marry God? How?"
"By joining every part of your life and being-your deepest parts, your heart, your soul, your wounds, your longings, your desires, everything-to God. Only then can you be complete. Only then can your deepest needs and longings be fulfilled. For the mystery of our hearts is the mystery of the bride. And the bride can only find her completion in the Bridegroom. And the Bridegroom of our souls ...is God."

The Mission: Put away anything that substitutes for His presence, and join all that you are, your deepest parts, to your Bridegroom.