What is Your Favorite Role in Relation to Jesus?

by Nancy Petrey

As Christians there are many roles we play in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We are disciples, friends, worshipers, servants, children, sheep, joint-heirs, subjects, ambassadors, soldiers, and the bride of Christ.
These are wonderful roles, and God makes it possible for us to fulfill them all. But we must not lose sight of God’s overarching purpose for the Church – He is seeking a wife for His Son. The Bible begins and ends with a marriage! God performed the first wedding ceremony in joining the “first Adam” to his wife Eve.
In the back of the book we see the “second Adam,” Jesus Christ, and His wife at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. It is significant that Jesus did His first miracle at a wedding, turning water into wine. This was no happenstance. It demonstrated His priority of ministry. But why turn water into wine? Maybe the answer is found in a song the Lord gave me. When I was arranging my collection of poems and songs into a book, Habitation of Honey: Poems and Songs, I realized that there was a recurring wedding theme, so I placed “The Wedding Feast” at the end of the book to sum up that theme. The back cover accentuates the theme with a beautiful chuppah (wedding canopy) and the chorus of this song:

The Wedding Feast
(You Are Aged Wine)
~ Song based on John 2:1-11 ~

Have you ever heard the story of the wedding in Cana of Galilee?
Have you thought much about the stone pots that were used for the wine?
They were sitting there waiting to be used; they had great capacity,
But till Jesus came they were empty as they could be.
There was a wedding, and Jesus had them filled to the brim with water.
He said, “Draw some out. Take it to the master of the feast.”
When the master of the feast tasted the water that was made into wine,
He called the Bridegroom and said, “What you have done is so very fine.”
The world serves their best wine at the first and saves the worst till last,
But Jesus has a better idea: He ages His wine.
And as the days grow long, and you don’t feel so strong, He will come to you,
Fill you up with Living Water, and He’ll change you into finest wine.

CHORUS 1:
You are aged wine. I’ve been saving you a long time.
You are aged wine. You are a wonder and a sign.
You are aged wine. To everything there is a season and a time.
The Bridegroom has had a long fast. He’s saved the very best till last!

 You were that water pot that was empty till Jesus came your way.
At the wedding of your spirit, you were filled with Living Water, just a pot of clay.
Now He’ll pour you out, and you’ll quench the thirst of a dying world.
He’s saved the best till last. You’re the finest wine that He has!

CHORUS 2:
You are aged wine. I’ve been saving you until the end of time.
You are aged wine. You are a wonder and a sign.
You are aged wine. The King is coming soon, He’ll say, “You are Mine.”
The Bridegroom at last will have His bride, and He’ll take you to His side.
He’ll take you up into the air – for this day you must prepare –
To His throne in New Jerusalem for the wedding feast of the Lamb!

Words & Music by Nancy Petrey, June 12, 1995, © October 23, 1995;
Revised September 13, 2009

            This song is an encouragement to Christians in their sunset years, whose greatest days of service are still ahead. So the book closes with anticipation of the arrival of our Bridegroom, which should be the focus of every Christian’s life.

 The most exciting aspect of my relationship with Jesus is that I am the bride of Christ. What is yours?