It is amazing how many different wedding customs there are around the country. Some are good. Some are not so good. (Have you ever been a participant in the “chicken dance”?) Besides the fact that the DJ never actually plays my requested songs, I still enjoy weddings and usually look forward to them.

In Jesus’ day, some 2000 years ago, weddings were different. It was a custom just after the Jewish couple was engaged that the groom would go to prepare a home or room for his bride. Then upon returning to the bride’s home, he would sweep his lady off her feet and take her to their wedding ceremony.

Part of this sounds very romantic—a bride waiting expectantly, not quite sure when her beau will return. Surely these young women had great confidence that their fiancés would return to pick them up for the wedding. After which, they would have a glorious life together. But there must have been a little doubt as they waited so eagerly while hours, even days passed by.

Jesus understood that after he left the earth, the hope of his followers for his return could easily slip from sure faith to nagging doubt. So just before he died, Jesus explained that they could be confident in their hope in him. No matter how long the delay, Jesus would return and take them to heaven with him.

Jesus gives this sure promise to all who have hope in him: “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3).

You might be hoping to get a raise, or that your team wins the World Series, or even that you have found the right “someone.” Yet, with all our dreams and hopes, we can never be sure. Relationships can go sour, jobs can get cut, or teams can fizzle out during the stretch. What makes Jesus so amazing is that we can put our complete confidence in him and know that he will never fail us—not now, not forever. In Jesus we have true hope.