Happy Heart Day...

If I could wait here for you,
Without hope or knowing what to do…
Watch the light fade away,
Without fear or knowing what to say…

If I should hold all my dreams,
Through the night of the way life sometimes seems…
And if I can't see which way to go,
I'll stay lost in silence 'til I know.
Cry the tears from my eyes.
And leave me here long enough to realize.

Where is love now?
Where is love now,
Out here in the dark?

~ Excerpt from Where is Love Now? by Nickel Creek

Reader: "Wait...what kind of a Valentine's Day greeting is this?!  This is downright depressing!"
*Goes to close tab.*

Hold on.  If those words seems depressing, it's because they are.  Don't get me wrong, Nickel Creek is an amazingly talented group, and I am a huge fan of their music.  And the tune of this song is just lovely...

BUT...the point is that the lyrics are depressing.  The real question is...why?

Well, it has something to do with the apparent definition of love.  Rather an oft-considered, multi-faceted subject, no?  Although I've never been in any kind of romantic relationship, I've lived with my family and been around my friends long enough to know that their love isn't perfect.  More importantly, my love isn't perfect.  Because quite frankly, I'm not perfect.  Far from it. 

BUT...God is.  Which means His love is as well.  Quite dissimilar from our worldly encounters with the phenomenon, in fact...  I've recently been mulling over a section I read in New Morning Mercies that speaks to this very thing:

"You always begin to understand anything that is new to you from the vantage point of your own experience.  All the human love we’ve experienced has been flawed in some way.  But not God’s; His love is perfect and perfectly steadfast forever.  It is the single most stunning reality in the life of a believer.  God has placed his love on us and he will never again remove it.  There’s a reason to continue, no matter how hard life seems and how weak you feel." ~ Paul David Tripp

Wow.  As much as idealistic ideas of romance often infiltrate my thinking, over the years I've realized something.  This "stunning reality" can't possibly be emphasized enough... My hope of one day discovering true love cannot be in any human person.  Just recently I heard a wonderful sermon on the subject of HOPE.  In it, the pastor said something that really stood out to me: "Even human relations can't provide hope.  Sometimes they dash it more than anything else."  In reality, I've already discovered true love and hope.  That is, in CHRIST.  The perfect love of my God will never fail, as much as others fail me.  As much as I fail others.  As much as I fail myself.  And as much as I fail Him.  Far too quick am I to forget that precious thought and go on dreaming.  His is the only love that can truly satisfy and never disappoints. 

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. ~ 1 John 4:8-12

Have a blessed day, friends!