A young friend of mine, who asks some of the most beautiful, honest, earnest questions, asked me a few weeks ago why everything in life seems to revolve around romance. Pop music, movies, books.
I gave a short answer. "Because it is." Unless it isn't, of course, but I'll mention that in a second.
The overarching story of life is a love story. We celebrate a week where a groom-to-be proposes to his bride, she accepts, and he goes to prepare a place for them to live. And in that week, he bought her, paid her dowry, and has opened the door for her.
But not everyone knows that story, or believes it. They just feel the void. They feel their longing for affection and love (and depending on their background) despise it or seek it out like a drug addict.
I've been in two dating relationships now and I've seen in each how God constructed this aspect of our lives to reflect His love for us. Yet I am just as guilty as the next on focusing on it and seeking it to fill my entire void. Oh how many relationships end there, whether dating, or worse, marriage, because they find that the void cannot be fill by human affection. No wonder divorce rates are so high (within and without the church). How many pop (and especially country... ::sigh::) songs address this relationship aspect. And that's not a bad thing. We need to have healthy relationships. God showed us what those look like. To the point of laying your life down. But this media kinda just sits there. Because that's all there is to it. "Gee, I'd really like to get this girl to like me" in verse 1 and by the 4th verse (if it's Taylor Swift, it may be more like the 5th or 6th...), "Awesome, I got her." So... I guess that's it? Ride off into the sunset? Careless, honeymoon days of bliss? Any married or divorced couple would tell you no. At least, they've told me that.
But what about those who say it's not about love? What about the media that speaks of valor, character and strength (action movies come to mind). Ok, pardon my 6 year old moment for a second. Why? Why be a man or woman of valor, character and strength? So you can lord it over someone? My favorite are the ones where the hero uses those character traits to fight the bad guy and save the day. Wait... Save the day? What does that mean? Oh, stopping the bomb from destroying the city? What about the cowboy who ends up in a gunfight with the black hat cow rustler? All of these are about protecting innocent life. Maybe better said, loving human life. We know that to love is to lay down your life. To give it up for someone else. Yes, I'm sorry men, but even your action flicks are love stories.
This world was built on love. It desires love. It abuses love. It grows love. And in everything, it will remain slightly void of the perfect love that we get to taste this side of heaven, as if a kiss, until we walk through the door and spend eternity with our bridegroom in the home he has prepared for us.
