I tend to get wrapped up in happily-ever-afters. I still love hearing Nathan talk about how he met Sarah, my teacher talk about the first time she saw her husband.
When I'm introduced to a couple, one of my favorite questions to ask is (with a big goofy smile on my face!) "So how did you two meet?" People meet someone at a concert, on a trip, in an airport, waiting in line at a hot dog stand or at a coffee shop, and then before they know it, something clicks. It can happen between totally polar-opposite personalities. It can happen with close friends. Falling in love can be like meeting someone for the first time, even when you've known him forever. For most people, it seems as though love happens at a moment they aren't expecting it. In an instant, life just changes~ the world suddenly goes from cool sepia colors to soft pastels.
Silver screen love is beautiful too~ tragic and sweet, simple and passionate. I'm into love stories, and I think there's a good reason for this. I'm a girl created to love and be loved. My craving for affection, the way I melt when a guy hand reaches to pull out my chair, is a mystery to me. Friendship, romance, and affection can all be this jumbled, confusing mess. Trusting God with that part of my heart can be crazy hard.
I wanted to see the different ways Paul described what it would be like to live without love~ how his imagery was woven through different translator's pens. Without love, we're compared to a resounding gong and a clanging cymbal, the creaking of a rusty gate and meaningless noise. Without love, you and I are fingernails on a chalkboard, jackhammers in a peaceful neighborhood. Without love, it seems as if Paul is saying we're chaos.
What's even harder for my brain to process is that the word Paul uses for love doesn't refer to chick-flick examples, physical affection or conversation-heart poetry. Paul isn't talking about romantic love, the kind of love I have a tendency to think will make my life perfect. He's talking about agape love. Without a love that fills my life, the kind of love I can only find in Christ, the words I speak are empty, the plans I make seem shallow~ even the relationships I have feel flat.
With Christ's love, life takes on a whole new meaning. We can be kind, patient, confident (not cocky) women who persevere, hope, trust, and pursue the purpose He has for us. We can have a deep rooted security in the permanency of His love, find protection when we're near Him and look for ways to reach out to other people. Even when our world feels like a carnival ride, when our emotions and lives swirl together in a big colorful mess, we can know He is permanent, unchanging and constant. That is pretty romantic. The way God loves us in amazing.
I'm saying all of that to get to this~ You are already loved regardless of your dating status. I'm convinced it's totally OK for us to be excited about the guy He has for us, to let other relationships be a reminder to guard our hearts and our emotions and save the best of who we are for one person. And I'm convinced it's OK to desire romance, to appreciate the guys He puts in our lives. I'm also convinced that even when we're with guys who are every bit of what we've prayed for, we'll feel really empty if we aren't looking to Christ for His approval. He is the love that fills us. Jesus completes us.
When we're living lives full of love like Paul writes about, that love that spills into every other area of our lives as well.
Whether you're watching a sappy movie with a sweet guy this sunny Saturday, or watching a sappy movie alone, you're loved. Whether you're the girl everybody wants to be, or the girl who sits on a bench alone at a picnik table, you are loved. It's so easy for me to think the love that will make my life matter is the love I get from the attention and approval of other people, but again and again I'm learning the only love that makes me whole is the love I find in my relationship with Him.
You and I can wait with a whole lot of anticipation. God is very good at happily-ever-afters. Even when a sweet, fun, godly guy does come along and makes our ordinary day extraordinary, even when we have a great story to tell our grandkids, let's make the love of Christ a priority in our lives. He makes every ordinary moment extraordinary. He sees every mistake and makes a masterpiece from it.
Even for the moments we fail, the times we let our guard down, the broken hearts we give back to Him in pieces, He's waiting to sweep us up into a love that too amazing to articulate.
Without Him, I would be a meaningless noise, a clanging cymbal.
With Him, I'm acoustic guitars, a jazz piano solo, a symphony under the stars.
Without Him, my story is jumbled and inarticulate, but with Him I'm a happily-ever-after just waiting to happen.
And so are you! :)
Love,
Poppins
Absolutely beautiful, dear friend :-)
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