Love Story

Do you ever grapple with deep longings for intimacy that you think can be fulfilled if something in your life would change?  If you're married, it might be...."If my husband would just tune in to me and understand what I really need!"  If you have children, perhaps...."If only my kids would appreciate me more, acknowledge their need for my counsel, guidance, etc., or open up and share their deepest thoughts and feelings with me!"  If it's about friendships.... "If I could find a true kindred spirit, or if my friend didn't live so far away, or if so-and-so just had more time to spend with me."  If you're single, like me, then very likely...."If  I could only find the love of my life!"

Do you find yourself in moments where you want desperately to experience a degree of intimacy that you have not known?  It could be a life experience you have not yet had, such as marriage, and you're dreaming of how wonderful it could be.  Or perhaps you are married, or enjoy a close friendship, or are blessed with healthy, growing family relationships, yet you feel let down, disappointed at times, like there should be so much more in this relationship than what you already have.

I'm going to be personally candid right now.  Sometimes I really miss a man I have never met. Sometimes I lie in bed at night and long for experiences in intimacy that I have not had.  I imagine things that are not healthy for me to imagine because I'm coveting something that is not mine.  I want fulfillment from someone who will never realistically be able to give it, because no person on earth can satisfy my soul.  And I know this.  I know the difference between reality and fairy tales, but that doesn't stop me from wanting the fairy tale.

What do we do with this desire?  Where do you go with your craving that has been disappointed by the realities of wrestling in relationship?  Where do I go with my cravings for something I've never had, something I make too much of in my imagination?

There's an answer.  It's not easy, but it's real.  Psalm 37:4  "Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart."

Jesus created us for relationship and intimacy.  He created us with these desires, and so they are good. But they are meant to be satisfied (humanly) in relationships with real people, through self-giving love that is rooted in His love.  And our soul's deepest need for intimacy was never meant to be fully satisfied in another human being.  Our human longings are really just an echo of something much deeper, much more real.  It is the echo of eternity and absolute intimacy that has been placed within our souls by our Maker.  This longing is for the perfect, eternal intimacy with the One who formed our innermost being, who breathed into us the breath of life, the One who knows us fully and loves us perfectly!

So today I am practicing a new thought pattern.  Directing my desire toward Jesus.  This is the response of a soul to its maker, of a heart seeing glimpses into the realm of eternity.  Perhaps your soul will resonate with this as well.

Jesus, it is to You I belong.  You tell me who I am and give me incredible value.  You complete me and answer my existence.  You are the Love who pursues my heart, who is always coming for me. No matter where I go, no matter how far or how long I run, You will find me.  You have never lost me.  I can't hide from You.  I can't get away from Your presence.  Even when I feel light years away from You, Jesus, You are with me.  It is only a delusion of the enemy that I have chosen to believe, that You would ever be far from me.  You gave Yourself so I could be one with You and never be separated from You again!

What love is this?

The greatest Love Story ever.

And I am the bride.

I am the harlot, and I am the bride.

I am the rebel and the redeemed.  The lost and the found.  I am the runner and the greatly desired beauty, wanted by the King.

I am the outcast and I am the chosen.

I am the filthy made clean.  I am the walking dead raised to life!  I am the hopeless sinner made righteous!  I am darkness overcome by Light!

I am the hater turned lover.

I am the fighter and the slave of Love.

I am the orphan and I am the beloved child of the King of Kings!!!

Jesus is my Maker, my Righteousness, my Lover, my King, my Wisdom, my Light, my Bread and Water, my Joy, my Hope, my Exceeding Great Reward, my Counselor, my Author, my Way, my Truth, my Beginning and End.....and my LIFE!!!

The greatest Love Story ever.  The Story with no end.  I am the beloved one.  You are the beloved one.  This is the Story of the Lover who has always been coming for us.