Real Love
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13:7
Growing up, I had pretty romantic notions about what marriage would look like. My parents have a good marriage and they married young, so I figured that if I hadn’t met the person I was going to marry in high school, then I was sure to be single my whole life. I don’t know where this foolish thinking came from, but it definitely influenced the choices I made at that time. I thought that once I got married, life would be perfect.
Fast forward twenty-five years (and lots of learning) and I am happily married. My husband is a wonderful man. He loves his family well and he loves me in a way that encourages me to be the woman God made me to be. So, marriage is good, but it is in no way perfect. We get annoyed with each other, grow weary in our attempts to love each other, and sin against each other every day. My husband doesn’t fill in all the empty places of my heart, and I still have days when I feel alone and disappointed.
All of my ramblings are to say that love between two people is a gift from God, but it will never fully satisfy our hearts. It wasn’t designed to.
God made marriage to point our hearts to him. Through marriage we get a picture of his love for us. We learn how hard it is to sacrifice our own needs for another’s best interest. We feel the angst of committing to love someone forever, when they aren’t easy to love. We are humbled when our spouse shows grace to us when we deserve anger.
Marriage allows us to see that we are needy people. We can’t and will never love perfectly. In our insufficiency, we begin to cry out for help from the only one who fully understands us. . . Jesus. We can cry for rescue from him, because he has demonstrated perfect love to us.
God’s love never fades and never grows weary. We don’t annoy him or make him throw his hands up in frustration. He faithfully keeps his promises to us, never wavering or growing dim.
For Further Reading: 1 Corinthians 13, Romans 5:8