The God of Romance

During Christmas break the hubby and I headed down to Indy for our ministry's national conference. Somehow I misread the map and we ended up driving through a part of Indy that made me realize we weren't in Kansas anymore. The highlight of the drive was passing a pimp on the street. I admit that I am not that street savvy, but this guy looked like he just stepped off the set of Starsky and Hutch. He had on a purple velvet blazer, bellbottom pants and a hat tilted to the side. Weird.

Thankfully we made our way back to the heart of Indy and to the conference. It was great to see people from all over the country that have been serving in full-time campus ministry for many years. I love getting to worship with the people that I love who also have a passionate love for God.

While at the conference I had the opportunity to teach a seminar I titled, "The God of Romance." It was based on the idea from the book of Ecclesiastes that says that "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men." That God has set eternity in our hearts and that He is the one who gave us our desire to be loved and romanced.

I think that this intense desire we have for romance is actually a desire that God put there, a desire that cannot be met by any person on this earth. My husband is great at loving me every day, telling me he loves me, showing me affection, but sometimes struggles with the grand gestures, the things that might help a woman feel special and swept off her feet. But I know other women with the opposite problem. They have husbands who make sweeping gestures every once in a while, but struggle to show consistent affection on a daily basis. As we learn in marriage, we can't have it all - one person cannot be all things to another - not my husband to me, nor me to my husband. Eternity has been set on our hearts.

Honestly, I think this is part of God's plan to keep us searching. Of course many of us go off searching in the wrong places, assuming that this desire must be earthly, I mean, it's the desire for romance after all. But as I watch romantic movies and read my old classic love stories I sense that God is calling to me, beckoning me to come and drink deeply of His love. He challenges me to see that His love is more than the distant fatherly affection many of us imagine, but it is passionate, jealous, pursuing, ardent love. He wants me to be consumed by it, much like I was by my husband's when we first fell in love. I remember floating through my day filled with joy and awe that I was loved, that I had found someone I couldn't live without. It thrilled me.

Why is it that we think being loved by God is nice? Nice is boring. Isn't everything else just an imitation of all that God has to offer? I think that He has set eternity on our hearts, and I believe that He doesn't put anything there that He doesn't fully intend to realize.