Matt 22:37  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Mike and I talk about this from time to time, how hard it is to love Jesus. What do I mean?

Mike will say, “How can I love someone I can’t touch or see or even talk with face to face?”

He’s right.  It IS hard.  It IS different from family love – love between husband and wife, love of a mom and a dad for their children. Even love for our companion dogs or cats.

Since we don’t experience the physical God, ‘all’ we can go on is what we read in the Bible ABOUT Him as mediated to us through God’s Spirit.

Those writings CAN be the start, the seed of a growing love.

Think of an arranged marriage between a bride and a groom who have yet to meet.  As believers we, the Church, ARE that bride being prepared for our groom Jesus who has put into writing His promise to come for us.  There IS a wedding date.  The God family knows it. We, the bride, are the only ones who don’t know the exact date. But the invitation has been printed and the wedding reception has been prepared since before the creation of the universe.

Let’s put this into life in 2020 where planned unions do take place.  So it is plausible that your parents have indeed arranged for you to marry someone on the other side of the globe. You’ve never met your intended. But there is a lot of information available about him.  In fact, he and his father have sent written accounts to you and your family of what he is like and what extremes he has already undertaken to secure the right to marry you.

There is even a courier, someone who knows your fiancé inside and out.  This internuncio or go-between is willing and available to explain in as much detail as you would like every heroic exploit your future husband has undertaken and how much he loves you. The stories are filled with longings of your bridegroom to be with you.  He writes of the joy he is anticipating being your husband and being with you.  At first his words stun you in their intensity and certitude.

Wouldn’t you be curious to know more? Wouldn’t it make sense to read over and over again these accounts about him and love notes from him?  Each time that his emissary would fill in some of the detail wouldn’t you appreciate more what he has gone through to secure your hand in marriage?  Wouldn’t your wonder grow deeper and form the basis of a love? Gradually as you came to understand the intricacies and details of your future husband’s plan to marry you, you might even start to question why YOU had been selected by his Father. This kind of love would strike you as a one-of-a-kind amazing love.  Learning about it would have to warm your heart gradually.

I’ve seen the pattern in my own life of not caring anything about a particular subject, say statistics. Yes, I once had to take such a class to get certified to teach French. What happened in that course was that AS I learned and got into the material, I grew interested.  This phenomenon of interest springing up from knowledge still happens in my life.

Until a couple of years ago, I never considered or even desired to learn Spanish. But one day I had a reason to learn, a planned trip for students to France & Spain. Just a few weeks into my relationship with this new language, I was hooked. My passion for ‘español’ took off.  From zero interest to love in a few weeks.

So it is with this arranged marriage.  I’m making the case that one CAN grow to love someone one has yet to see.  Through learning about that person.

Is it the same as seeing someone, hanging around someone physically, touching someone, hearing someone laugh and then look you straight in the eyes with tender affection?  No!!! But it’s something.

That’s how I view loving Jesus and reveling in the fact that He loves me. It’s NOT the same as my love for my sons and for Mike.  But it will be one day. From what my intended has written, my love FOR Him and my feeling loved BY Him will be categorically better.  I believe that, even if I can’t yet know it experientially as I long to.