love... [I of III]

For the last 55 years, there has been one genre of literature that outsells all historical fiction, crime dramas, and mysteries to win the title of best-selling novels. Know what it is? Romance novels. Yes, the paperback books with wind blown hair of a half naked buxom blond languidly laying helplessly in the arms of a buff Fabioesque male in the grocery market checkout lines. What about highest ranked movies for female moviegoers? Yup, chick flicks. Why do women want to see these films? Simple, we want to get lost in the love affair of the characters! We want to feel that love! We love love! In an email from a friend in New York, he reminded me of how passionately I feel about love:

    I feel that there's a small club of us who love love the way we do, and you, Bianca, are the PRESIDENT of the club. I want to see you succeed like I want Obama to succeed. This sounds ridiculous but it's true. I feel like you need to succeed so that hope that was promised to us by individuals we believe in comes to pass... so that I know everything is the way it's supposed to be. 

But people, we've been duped! Contemporary media, medieval literature, and archaic Platonic philosophy has created an idealized version of love. We wait for someone from Seattle to meet us at the top of the Empire State Building, a maverick who snuck onto a doomed ship dodging icebergs confessing our undying love to someone they've just met, or having a man by the name of Jerry say, You complete me. But this is not real. So what's a real love story? The whole bible is a love letter from God to His people. Not only does God long for us, but longs to be loved by us (Deut. 6:5, Matt. 22:37-38). Though there are many examples of God's love in the bible, I've isolated three to touch on lightly.

God's love is EVERLASTING. In Jeremiah 31:3 we are told that God loves us with an everlasting love. The ironic part about this is that it was written for the children of Israel who were spoken about through verbal imagery as virgins (v. 4), but we know from previous scriptures that they had been whoring about with other nations, giving themselves to other gods. But His love is eternal and everlasting and incapable of forgetting. 

He hasn't forgotten about us. He knows our names. He knows our every thought. He sees each tear that falls. He hears us when we call. Isaiah 49:16 tells us that He has inscribed us in the palm of His hand. This is the best visual for me because at one time I had two cell phones, a PDA, a laptop, a calendar, a zillion post-it notes, and a notepad on my desk. But even now, the most important things I need to remember are written in the palm of my hand. To know He has me etched in the palm of his hand moves me to my core... to know that my name is near His nail pierced hands means more to me than words could describe. 

Live  today in LOVE. Live in God's everlasting LOVE.