"Mrs. McKanna...my hand is pencil-bitten!" is my student's not so subtle way of telling me he's been working hard on his final draft.

Does a Bride Forget Her Wedding Dress?

“What a generation you turned out to be!
Didn't I tell you? Didn't I warn you?
Have I let you down, Israel?
Am I nothing but a dead-end street?
Why do my people say, 'Good riddance!
From now on we're on our own'?
Young women don't forget their jewelry, do they?
Brides don't show up without their veils, do they?
But my people forget me.
Day after day after day they never give me a thought.”


--Jeremiah 2:31-32

I’ve recently been convicted by this passage. And with my own wedding only a few weeks away, I understand all too well the illustration Jeremiah uses in these verses.

Does a young woman forget and neglect to wear her jewelry? Does a bride hide her wedding dress? Is it possible for a virgin to put out of her memory her ornaments, or a bride her dress? But my people have put me out of their memories for unnumbered days. It is not possible for a bride to misplace, stop thinking about, put out of her mind, or lose her wedding dress. Every day I see my dress hanging in my room awaiting that blessed day. Most brides, including me, spend countless hours trying on dresses in search of “The One”: strapless, with straps, beaded, no beads, satin, organza, A-line/Princess, Empire, Column, Ball-gown, no-gown, Mermaid, dropped-waist, chapel train, no train. We find the choices and designs enough to make us insane. I was seriously contemplating eeny meeny miny moe until lo and behold I saw it – “The One” I had been looking for. No bride can exactly say how she knew she found her dress. She just does.

It is the day of the wedding. Everything could be going wrong, the bride might have overlooked a million and one details she never planned, but there is one thing she won’t forget – her wedding dress. Why? Because she treasures it; she’s carefully chosen it; it is hers.

How many days of my life this past year have been spent in planning a wedding, and how many days have passed without suitable remembrance of my Savior. The Lord asks His people, “Have I been a desert to you? A wilderness? A land of thick darkness? Have I let you down?” Have I not experienced the blessing of God and yet still forsake Him in my daily thoughts? How then does it happen that we depart from Him? He who promises good for us!

The people had resolved never to return to God. “Good Riddance!” They wished not to have any further relationship with Him even though all they could ask or think and more had flowed to them so as to fully satisfy them. They stood as if in no need of God’s aid for they purposed to supply themselves with whatever was necessary to support them. Enter pride. In my own life this past year leading up to the wedding, how many times did I try to accomplish things in my own strength? How much more effective I could have been had I paused and asked for God’s help and sufficient grace and not tried to “prove” something to myself and to others that I could do it – though all I ended up proving was my inability.

Like Israel, we are guilty of valuing God less than girls value their jewels or a bride her wedding dress. Of course these things are nothing more than trifles, and yet we are so foolishly taken with them. How is it that we forget God? Is there to be found any such valuable jewel or treasured dress which can be compared with our God? Then why do we commonly set our thoughts and affections on such things? Why have I?

I’m so thankful that the Lord, in His mercy, showed me my sin and how I belittled the all-satisfying abundance of God. I’m so thankful He does not give up on me. I’m so thankful that the Lord used these two verses in Jeremiah to show me myself and my off-centered priorities. And as I put on my carefully selected and much-loved wedding dress and veil in a couple weeks to become Nathan Jay’s wife, may I be reminded to remember my Lord day after day after day.

Dipped in Blood

Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments." 

--Zechariah 3:3-4

"Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on her!

I will dress her in fine linen

Bright and Clean

As a bride adorned with her jewels.

Of more worth and splendor than the lily of the field

Is her Garment of Salvation!

Her Robe of Righteousness!

She will wear forgiveness & lovingkindness like a crown."

All the while my bridegroom dressed me,

I noticed His own robe…

It was dipped in blood.

During Literature I asked my students, "What are some things that cause us to sin?"
My favorite answer from this discussion? "Reading a fashion magazine causes me to sin because then I covet." You can't make this stuff up!

-- "My mom sets my alarm for 6:30, but I always change it to 6:15 so I have time to make my lunch and play with my legos before school."

-- I gave each of my students two coins from Ethiopia yesterday. One of my boys came to school today with his coin collection this morning saying, "Mrs. McKanna, I've been saving these my whole life." (Remember I teach 9 year-olds.) Expecting to find a whole box full, he proceeds to empty his pocket of seven coins: 3 of them are Euros, 2 are from Ethiopia, one is from Romania, and the other is Canadian. You would have thought he held the moon and the rarest of gems!

-- My students wrote a letter today about themselves so I could gauge their writing ability. One boy wrote, "I am special because I am a gentleman."