I’ve been talking to some friends about love.
One who’s been single for many years, is now in a relationship.
The other, who’s been childless for many years, has just had a wee boy.
Both are rejoicing. But both say this:
‘It’s wonderful – but it doesn’t fix you.’
The longed-for family. The partner you’ve always dreamed of.
When it comes to love, this is the best that the world can offer. And it’s wonderful – but it doesn’t fix you.
What do I mean by ‘being fixed?’
That sense that something is missing and until I find it, I won’t be whole.
An awareness of my brokenness, that pills and counselling can’t reach.
A hunger for something bigger, something beautiful and terrible and true.
The world tells me ‘here is love’…
an expensive perfume
a beach resort for two
a feeling – like the giddiness of too much wine
And the world says I can get it
IF IF IF
If I wear the right mascara
If I visit the right dating sites
If I have the right friends and the right clothes and the right kitchen units and the right attitude.
But the gospel says something very different.
First it says: It’s not within your reach.
That dream job / relationship / life – it’s a mirage.
You’ll die of thirst getting there and when you do it will vanish.
BUT…
The gospel says ‘here is love’
Right here. Before you’ve taken a step.
Before you’ve realised you’re thirsty
And long after you collapse, parched.
Here is love.
the God who loves us first.
the God who sends His Son.
the God who pours out His Spirit.
Right now. Apart from your performance.
No ifs.
No boxes to tick.
Not what I do, but what He has done.
Not a shiny oasis in the distance but a Lord who meets us in the wilderness.
Not a pink fluffy love heart, but a cross.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:8
Watched the amazing ‘Walk the Line’ over the weekend (the story of Johnny Cash), and was reminded how our love for each other here finds it’s deepest point when it’s allowed to be understood as a single facet to express God’s far greater love for us. June Carter had the sense to know that the only way to truly ‘rescue’ that relationship (and any other) was through putting it in God’s everlasting arms – that’s the reason why at the heart of scripture we find ‘the’ love song between Christ and the one He makes His very own.
Lovely words as always Emma and so true. God hasn’t just met me in my wilderness, He has carried [and is carrying me] through it. Without Him I am nothing. Amen
Thank you. So well-expressed, so clear.