Bride and The Bridegroom

'Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. 
That he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish. So aught men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined unto his wife and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let everyone of you in particular so love his wife as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband' EPHESIANS 5:22-33 KJV

This scriptural passage gives us insight into the relationship between two set of people 1.relationship between the husband (bridegroom)and the wife(bride) 2.relationship between Christ(bridegroom) and the church(bride) A bride is a woman who is going to marry or who has just married and a bridegroom is a man who is going to marry or just got married. 
There is a need to look into the relationship between these individuals and to know the responsibilities laid on both parties in the relationship. The bridegroom implies the grooming of the bride and the bride, the one to be groomed or receive grooming. Grooming means to care for one's appearance, hygiene and clothing or an act of teaching someone so that the person can advance in a specific area or areas. Although there are other definitions of grooming but would like to discuss these two as relating to the bride and bridegroom. 

God expects a man that is about to get or married or a married man to take care and groom his bride/ wife. He is saddled with the responsibility to present her to himself and make sure that she is fit for the purpose why she has been designed by God. The period of courtship or betrothal is to serve this purpose. A wife is designed to be a help suitable to her own husband but she needs to be schooled in this responsibility although god has fashioned her to fit into this role but she needs to be taught. 
The man she is betrothed to has to take her through what it means to be suitable for him but this is only possible when they are both submitted to God their maker and her yielded to the holy spirit who actually knows the grooming process and does it through the word of God. 
If a man tries to groom his bride with his own wisdom, he will fail woefully because he is yet to even fully understand himself or who is suitable for him. Jesus Christ has laid down the example that we ought to follow in the way he grooms his brides the Church) in fact he gave himself for his bride for the purpose of Sanctification and cleansing to give a glorious church-not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing that it should be holy and without blemish. A bride cannot be glorious if she doesn’t go through the process of removing excesses and cleansing( to remove impurities). 

When you stand in front of a mirror during a physical grooming, you see whether the look that was your aim before you started has been achieved or not; whether that picture in your mind has become a reality. If there are still some parts that are not conforming to that picture, you make the necessary adjustment. 

Our mirror is the word of God, when we look into the word of God and we see something in our lives that is not conforming to the word, the grooming continues until we become like him and God can showcase us to his father at the marriage supper of the lamb. As much as responsibility is laid on the bridegroom to groom the bride, the bride needs to be submissive to the grooming process, she must bring herself subject so that she can become presentable at the end of the process. 

Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own husbands. It is when the rule of submission is in place that the grooming process can be successful. When the husband loves the wife as his own body, he will care for it and nourish it, give her all that it takes to be all that god wants her to be and she will be able to satisfy her husband. Much more than in the context of marriage, Jesus wants to groom us, he is in fact in the process of grooming and what he expects from us is submission.