Genesis 24:61-62

And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahai-roi; for he dwelt in the south country.

I love what is happening here because Isaac does not go out hunting for a bride on his own. Abraham sent the servant, and the servant brought Rebekah back. That was the custom. The father would arrange the marriage for his son. Then, after the agreement was made, the son would return to his father’s house and prepare a place for his bride. And when everything was finally ready, the father would send the son to receive her.

That whole picture points so beautifully to Jesus.

Our Bridegroom has not forgotten us. He has not wandered off. He has not lost interest. He is preparing a place. That is exactly what Jesus said in John 14:2-3:

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

That is not poetry only. That is promise.

And just as in the old Jewish wedding pattern, the exact moment of the bridegroom’s coming was not announced ahead of time in detail. Jesus said in Mark 13:32:

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”

So what do we do in the meantime? We do what Rebekah did. We go forward. We keep moving in the direction of the bridegroom. We travel by faith before sight. We trust the word that has been brought to us. We believe what we have heard about Him.

And one day, when He comes for His bride, we are going to meet Him. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

What a meeting that will be.

But there is another part of this scene I do not want to miss. Isaac came from the way of the well Lahai-roi. That name means, “The well of him that liveth and seeth me,” or simply, “The Lord sees.” While Rebekah is on the way to Isaac, Isaac is already in the place that speaks of watchful care.

That ministers to me.

Most of us talk about watching for the Lord, and we should. But the sweeter truth may be this: the Lord is watching for us. He longs for that meeting even more than we do. We wonder what heaven will be like. We wonder what joy awaits. We wonder what it will mean to be finally home. But He does not wonder. He knows. He knows every good thing the Father has prepared, and He is eager to bring us into it.

That changes the whole tone of the Christian life.

We are not just waiting for Him.
He is waiting for us too.

We are not dragging ourselves toward a reluctant Savior. We are moving toward One whose heart is set on receiving His bride. He sees us. He knows the road. He knows the weariness of the journey. And He has not stopped looking in our direction for a moment.

Saints, that ought to steady us today. The One we long for is also longing for us. The One we are watching for is watching for us with greater love, greater certainty, and greater joy than we can yet understand. And when the Father says the word, our Bridegroom will come.