It’s springtime. It’s almost wonderful summer….and it seems so romantic, doesn’t it? The miracle of spring just fills my heart to overflowing with a longing for love.
I have a confession to make: I want to fall in love. I need to fall in love. Better, deeper, for real. God calls me to His love. He calls to me, He whispers to me…He longs to be closer to me. And God’s love for us, His relationship with us, is all mirrored on a small scale in our human relationships.
So let me be honest for a minute. Let me be real: My boyfriend and I haven’t said “I love you” yet. It’s been 9 months, but we’ve made a conscious decision not to say it until…well, until we are ready to abide by all that loving someone means. The Bible has a pretty sobering description of love:
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. ~1 Corin. 13
Yep. Sobering. And I wonder…how can you say to someone, “l love you” unless it involves constantly striving to encompass all of those things? To do so would be to defraud the love of God! God is the only one who can love that perfectly. But the problem still remains for us here on Earth: we are descendents of Adam & Eve. Sinful from the get-go. Having to overcome impatience, meanness, envy, boasting, pride, selfishness, record-keeping, delighting in evil….and the list goes on. Darnet, I thought loving someone was supposed to be easy! 😛
How can I fall in earthly love, until I’ve fallen in Heavenly love? I can’t know how to love the way God intends until I’ve fully immersed myself in His love. So yes, I want to fall in love. I need to fall in love. Better, deeper, for real. To abandon my heart to the God of Love. To the only One who gets it perfect…who gets it right, who will never abandon me. I need to be secure enough in that love, because people I love in this life will disappoint me. Even more so, I will disappoint them. But to love God more and more perfectly (only through His grace) will make me more thoroughly aware of how well I am living in love here on Earth.
And that, my dear friends, is what it’s all about. And it’s so much easier said than done.