Romantic Love

So we see the kissy-face young couple all over one another at the bus stop or in some other public place. On a good day we smile, and on a cynical day we think "get a room." Scientists tell us that our body chemistry actually changes during the first year and a half to three years of a romance so that we are "in love" rather than simply loving. There are some who get addicted to that emotional "hit" and go from relationship to relationship.

With Valentine's Day at the end of the week we might ponder what Christians should think about all that emphasis on romance. Philip Yancey is a writer I enjoy because he is always thoughtful and this piece which was an online "thought for the day" was good.

For a brief time, at least, romance gives us the ability to see the best in one other person, to ignore or forgive flaws, to bask in endless fascination. That state… gives a foretaste of how we will one day view every resurrected person and how God now views us.

Romantic love does not distort vision but corrects it, in a very narrow range. The Bible uses explicit romantic images to describe God’s love for us: what we feel in passing for one person, God feels eternally for the many. If we receive romantic love not as an end in itself but as God’s gift, a shining grace, it can become like a shaft of light beckoning us toward what we will someday experience more fully as resurrected beings.

-- Philip Yancy in Rumors of Another World

I will be away with my Valentine for a few days so I will check in with you later.