“I wanted my wedding dress to show my scar”
Dear Friends,
That is what Princess Eugenie said of the dress she wore for her wedding on Friday when she married Jack Brooksbank. It was a remarkable statement. Most brides would try to hide their scars and other blemishes, but she chose to put hers on display by wearing a dress with a low back. At the age of 12 she had surgery to treat the scoliosis from which she suffered and she wanted to honour those who had helped her and to inspire those who suffer from the same condition.
Princess Eugenie may not realise it but this is a beautiful illustration of another royal wedding, indeed the royal wedding to end all royal weddings, when King Jesus takes his bride to live with him for ever. There is, though, one crucial difference. At this wedding it will be the groom who bears the scars, while the bride will be spotless and radiant. It is “the wedding of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:7), the Lamb who sacrificed himself in order to win a people for himself.
This is the King we need, for only a wounded King can truly heal the wounds we bear, as Edward Shillito observed in his moving poem Jesus of the Scars:
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister/Vicar)